Check any car manual and it will indicate that the driver should immediately investigate any unusual noises coming from under the hood. If any lights on the dashboard turn on, the vechile should be brought to a trained professional right away. Given how many warnings the big three auto makers have been seeing on their economic dashboard, its surprising none of them bothered to investigate. It appeared that despite driving for several years with the "Danger - Global Warming" light on or the words "Hummer Sales Dropping" rattling from the engine, they refused to make any major changes. They decided to avoid innovation and continue to create products that many Americans did not need, let alone want. The biggest sign of creativity was from GM who created the electric car which spurred Toyota and Honda to turn to their drawing boards for a competitive product. However, GM decided to walk away from this endevour and put their money behind the hummer while the Japanese developed hybrids. I suppose we should give credit to GM - without them we wouldn't have the Prius or the Hybrid Civic.
The auto industry is such a deep part of American culture and success that we can't leave it behind. But we cannot tolerate it as it is now. This country has the largest and most complex roadway system in the world, which means that we should have the most advanced and efficient cars in the world. Unfortunately, we never had the leverage to make the American car industry make these changes. Now we do. If we bail out the auto industry, I hope it leads to a greener Detroit and a greener America.
1 comment:
The auto industry drove off a cliff in an H2 and we should not save them without strict regulation of the environmental efficiency of their future products. Any bailout should involve both a temporary public stake in the firms as well as heavy congressional regulation of the industry.
In the meantime, people, buy Hybrids.
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