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Gentlemen:
In response to
your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for
the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and
please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clark, President of General
Motors North America.
Politicians and
Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same
entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in
UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is
now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah", Pres-elect
Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away,
while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep
"living the dream"… Believe me folks, The dream is over!
This dream where
we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically
focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that
our factories have been filled with the world’s most overpaid,
arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers"
without paying the price for these atrocities… this dream where
you still think the masses will line up to buy our products
forever and ever.
Don't even think
about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of
what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi,
Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's
throughout the Midwest during the past 30 years and what I've
seen over those years in these union shops can only be described
as disgusting.
Troy Clarke,
President of General Motors North America, states: "There is
widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our
government, and especially via the news media, that the current
crisis is completely the result of bad management which it
certainly is not."
You're right Mr.
Clarke, it's not JUST management… how about the electricians who
walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people
wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass… so they
can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time… for
a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour
work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with
all kinds of scare tactics… for putting out too many parts on a
shift… and for being too productive. (We certainly must not
expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for
decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?
Do you folks
really not know about this stuff?!? How about this great
sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last
few years… we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with
our competitors.." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the
last 40 years?!?
Did we really
JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us
and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?
Do I need to go on? What a joke! We are living through the
inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto
industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit.
I attended an
economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan
Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, surprised the
crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of
"bailout money". "Yes, he said, this would cause short term
problems," but despite what people like politicians and
corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact
rise the next day… and the following very important thing would
happen…where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new
efficient ones would pop up… that is how a free market system
works… it does work… if we would only let it work…"
But for some
nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the
world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need
the government to step in and "save us"… Save us my ass, Hell -
we're nationalizing… and unfortunately too many of our once fine
nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what is
really happening… But, they sure can tell you the stats on their
favorite sports teams… yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it…
Does it ever
occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing
vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country?...
How can that be??? Let's see… Fuel efficient… Listening to
customers… Investing in the proper tooling and automation for
the long haul…
Not being too
complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W.. Edwards Deming four
decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate
principles of management, organizations could increase quality
and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity
through quality and intelligent planning… Treating vendors like
strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy"… Efficient
front and back offices… Non union environment… Again, I could go
on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they
really don't already know down deep in their hearts.
I have six
children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting
someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself
into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I
did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for
me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand
on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their
actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh… Am I there
for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as
they need to be fully on their own as adults.
I don't want to
oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are
unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting
and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for
their sins. Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or
not. The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand
big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed as I heard Obama
"reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote
count was tallied…"we really might not do it in a year…or in
four…" Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING
for office.
Stop trying to
put off the inevitable folks … That house in Florida really
isn't worth $750,000… People who jump across a border really
don't deserve free health care benefits… That job driving that
forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year… We
really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with
products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their
currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on
the face of the globe…
That couple whose
combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living
in that $485,000 home… Let the market correct itself folks - it
will.. Yes it will be painful, but it's going to' be painful
either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the
other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it
has…and doesn't live beyond its means…and gets back to
basics…and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the
greatest nation in the history of the world…and probably turns
back to God.
Sorry - don't cut
my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad
news". I hope you take it to heart.
Gregory J.
Knox, President Knox Machinery, Inc.
"The problem
with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's
money."
Margaret
Thatcher
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