Leave it to the experts.Although this is the season to be thankful, I can’t help but acknowledge our economic situation. Our gross domestic product for the third quarter shrank by 0.3 percent. In October, the unemployment rate rose to a level not seen since the mid-1990s, home prices fell 18 percent over the previous year and auto sales were more than a third lower than one year ago.
The problem is, we have put our future into the hands of so-called experts. For example, how could our auto industry experts show so little foresight when it came to economic conditions, let alone global climate change? It certainly looks like there is more at work here than the free-market forces of our capitalistic system as the top execs of the Big Three automakers boarded their private jets to ask Congress for a $25 billion bridge loan. I heard someone say that it’s like going to a soup kitchen in top hat and tails. Apparently there’s no shame on this gravy train.
Meanwhile, supply can’t keep up with the demand for the Toyota Prius at our local dealership. An order placed today may not be filled until June of 2009. And Toyota may be the first to market with a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which is going to be released next year. Toyota’s experts, who seem to have a handle on what consumers want to buy, have publicly announced their goal is to sell one million hybrids each year beginning early next decade.
If it ends up we do loan the Big Three the big bucks, shouldn’t we at least have a say in their future operations, since they have done such a shabby job on their own?
It goes without saying that management should be fired, union contracts should be renegotiated and the flawed auto industry business model should be, well, remodeled. But technologies have long existed to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles—other companies around the world are using them. So—new rules—any money forked over to the U.S. automakers must be loaned contingent upon utilizing those technologies. We should craft a bailout plan that mandates the auto industry build efficient, high-quality cars that drastically reduce our dependency on petroleum.
We need to kick the U.S. auto industry to the front of the technology curve, then we need to monitor them so they won’t end up at the taxpayers’ trough again. That way, everyone wins—except those selling us oil.
It’s not just jobs and our economy at stake—our environment is at risk. We can’t allow it to be further compromised.
That’s my two cents’ worth… but I’m no expert.
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