Thursday, December 11, 2008

Haircut

I stopped by my Barber's yesterday to get a haircut after getting home from Santa Fe. I have been going to Gene Varoz for forty years now. That is hard to believe.

I got there a little early and picked up the December issue of Motor Trend Magazine. After perusing it for about ten minutes I was more certain than ever that the Big 3 auto makers in America are run by a bunch of idiots. All I saw were critiques and advertisements of gas guzzling muscle cars that are being ballyhooed by Detroit. Big engined heavy cars dominated the magazine as Detroit's latest offerings. It was nauseating. Do they deserve a bailout? Hell no, but we better do it anyway.

What I don't understand in all of this is why the Republicans don't want to support this. It was their philosophy, along with Michigan Democrats, that put bottom lines first in the auto world. They resisted research and development and high mileage standards that have led to the current mess. Now they don't want to help protect badly needed jobs. Yes, the featherbedding by labor unions have not helped either but they seem to understand now it is time for concessions.

These currently cheap gas prices will disappears rapidly as soon as the economy heals. Then the Big 3 better show us some new thinking or they should be hung out.

1 comment:

John Fleck said...

I'm not sure what else you would expect in Motor Trend. It's a magazine for people who want gas guzzling muscle cars, some of the cars they make are gas guzzling muscle cars, so that's what they're marketing there. This would only be a helpful reference point if we looked at what they advertise in other publications, aimed at other demographics. It could be that muscle is all Detroit's got, in which case you're right. But we need more than this data point on which to make that judgment.

And welcome back!