I don’t remember anything he said about the major topics of the day, such as Vietnam. I do remember that he thought General Motors ought to be broken up into five separate corporations. GM was too big, too rich and had too much market share. It had become so dominant that it choked off both competition and innovation.
He felt that the consumers would get a better deal and better cars would be built if there were more and smaller companies.
Well, General Motors was never broken up by the government. But other nations took care of providing the competition. Except GM was too big, too unwieldy and too bureaucratic to swiftly compete.
When I finally moved out of Michigan for awhile and bought a Honda in 1989, it was so far superior to the Oldsmobile and Buick I had owned that I never again wanted to buy an American car.
Multiply that experience several million times, and you will have a fair idea of what happened to GM, and the rest of Detroit, for that matter. Still, I have to confess that I am still a little stunned at General Motors’ bankruptcy, and more than a little sad.
This was more than just a company.
General Motors was the prototype for the modern American corporation, and for a long time, the biggest one in the world. Though founded by the rambunctious buccaneer Billy Durant, it was Alfred Sloan who shaped it into the all-encompassing universal vehicle manufacturer it became. His slogan was “a car for every purse and purpose,“ and that’s exactly what GM was.
During World War II, General Motors played a major role in defeating our enemies, as its many factories were swiftly converted to produce tanks and trucks and fighter planes.
Later, for a variety of reasons, General Motors began to lose its way. Even when it was clear what was wrong, somehow it too often proved impossible for GM to fix itself. Now, it will get one last chance. Today, General Motors begins the process of bankruptcy reorganization. The good news is that this is going to be perhaps the most cushioned bankruptcy in history.
The federal government, which already has invested something like $20 billion in GM in recent months, is throwing in another $30 billion in an effort to try to reconstitute a smaller, “new GM.”
Still, this is major surgery without anesthesia. The Oakland Press’s Joe Szczesny says this “will mark the death of a blue-collar dynasty which bestowed upon generations of North Americans the security of a job for life and a ticket to the middle class.”
Think about that. I don’t think any of GM’s best-known critics, including Ralph Nader and Michael Moore, ever thought they’d see this. What’s happening now may be necessary. Better things may emerge out of all this. Yet I think you still have to be profoundly sad.
I hope you are not still driving a Honda (or any other Japanese car) - you clearly forgave the Japanese for Pearl Harbour and killing thousands of Americans, I would think you would give an American company like GM another chance, especially given the quality accolades it has received in the last couple of years.
Posted by: Natalie Garlick | June 01, 2009 at 02:03 PM
Iam not driving a Honda, but that is irrelevant. Detroit has to convince the 295 million Americans who do not live in Michigan to buy their products again.
Posted by: Jack Lessenberry | June 01, 2009 at 04:53 PM
I have no problem with Goverment spending 50 Billion on GM given we have spent 1 trillion in Iraq..
After GM I hope Government spends money on our urban cities given our rebuilt of Iraq cities..
Posted by: Thrasher | June 01, 2009 at 05:03 PM
Natalie,
While not trying to answer for Jack, I think you make kind of a good (and fair) point, here, but it took most Americans at least 30 years to forgive the Japanese and, don't forget, we killed 100's of thousands of their civilians in order to get an end to the war (and I still don't buy German cars).
I think it is quite fair for, very unhappy, past customers of American car manufacturers (myself included) to have up to 20 years to think about if they want to by a traditional American-designed car again, especially since they have never had any way to really influence the auto companies except with their wallets (maybe now, with a government takeover, we'll be able to for a change). I hope to be able to buy American-designed cars soon again, but I'll wait to see if they design the right kind of cars, first, though and I also want them to clean house, completely, of their current management - especially the "neanderthal" Bob Lutz. It's important to point out too that most cars sold in this country are now American made, just not union made or all-American designed. So I guess I am sorry, the most, for not being able to buy a "union-made" car, but maybe that will change too, in the near future. This must be something like the 1920's all over again!
Posted by: George | June 01, 2009 at 05:06 PM
Today President Obama had two main comments with respect to General Motors. Both comments were laughably bad lies.
First, The Current Occupant stated, "many experts said a quick surgical bankruptcy was impossible."
Good. God. Who is he talking about? The "experts" who said that "no carmaker could survive a bankruptcy" were none other than Obama's patrons -- Ron Gettelfinger of the UAW, Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and (under duress), the soon-to-be-fired CEO of GM (who was privately consulting bankruptcy counsel), Rick Wagoner. Debbie Stabenow said that a bankruptcy was a non-starter. Carl Levin chimed in. It was all a lie. A "normal" bankruptcy was out of the question, because a "normal" bankruptcy would decimate the UAW. Only Obama's special pre-pack sweetheart bankruptcy plan for the UAW would be acceptable, and so Obama bought that option. With our money.
Obama's second risible lie today was this line:
"I recognize that this may give some Americans pause," he said, "but what we are not doing, and what I have no interest in doing, is running GM."
Say what? You just fired the CEO, dude! And you hand-picked his successor! And you just decided what kinds of cars they must start to design and build, like, yesterday; little Kia-Wannabes that get 39 m.p.g. Soon, you will be using the tax code to bribe car buyers to purchase a Chevy Volt. And you made the UAW a majority owner of Government Motors, which should make for a real interesting labor negotiation in five years between the UAW on one side, and, uh, the UAW on the other side. All of this, with a new Board of Directors picked by... whom? Henry Waxman? Nancy Pelosi? Michael Moore?
You couldn't make this stuff up with the full staff of The Onion working around the clock.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 01, 2009 at 05:36 PM
And....
Add this, to the laundry list of the ways that Chairman Obama is "not interested in running GM..."
From the Wall Street Journal, posted a few hours after my Comment immediately above:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124389952143874411.html
Really, it would be hard to make this stuff if it weren't actually happening.
Oh, and since Jack Lessenberry has such an affection for the writing of the Journal's Paul Ingrassia, there is this column from Mr. Ingrassia today; a WSJ twofer:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124389995447074461.html
Posted by: Anonymous | June 02, 2009 at 10:07 AM
One of the biggest challenges to selling American Cars is that the US customer mistakenly believes foreign cars are of higher quality. This may have been true years ago, but many Big Three autos now have higher scores in that department than foreign imports. The most recalled car last year was Toyota!
Comments like yours
"When I finally moved out of Michigan for awhile and bought a Honda in 1989, it was so far superior to the Oldsmobile and Buick I had owned that I never again wanted to buy an American car." with no mention of how times have changed only add to the lack of information. Implying that having bought foreign you will never again even consider an American car echos one of the major fallacies holding back GM today. Many Americans pay $2,000 more for the foreign "joint venture" automobiles when the only difference is the name-badge stuck on at the end. This does not benefit the American worker or consumer.
Posted by: Jean Becker | June 04, 2009 at 03:25 PM