.
Yes, that title appears to be backwards, if it alludes to the famous words allegedly spoken to Congress by a GM chairman in the mid-20th century: "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." But really, it's not backwards at all, first because
the way he actually said it has been
inaccurately repeated for decades, and second, because it makes perfect sense.
Today's
email from Michael Moore confirms what I've been thinking for a long time: if the Detroit Three can't sell cars, they surely still know how to make other big machines and equipment that are actually good for the country, and for the world. Things like high-speed locomotives, rail and trolley cars, buses; rail tracks, overhead power lines, new rail traffic monitors and safe crossing barriers — all the stuff to move
big machines, made for taking
lots of people to a
common destination on
one tank of fuel.
You know, the kind of "mass" in
mass transit that goes completely against rugged American isolationism and Don't Tread On Me ideology. The whole "my car, my commute, my exit" thing written about
here.
(And yes, the continuation to that installment is still in the works.)The corporate infrastructure is all there already. Many of the factories are dormant, but they're still operational. They just need 21st century technology to make while seven billion people adjust their collective brains to an anti-consumption, pro-planet set of thoughts and practices, leaving the old set to rot and rust like the obsolete machines now disintegrating worldwide.
If even a good pro-union, Flint-raised, GM-fed leftist like Michael Moore can turn against the company that made — and unmade — his hometown, then surely the moderate, middle-ground wise men on Capitol Hill can do the same. Here's the highlight of Moore's message:
What a long, sad fall from grace we witnessed on November 19th when the three blind mice [Detroit CEOs] had their knuckles slapped and then were sent back home to write an essay called, "Why You Should Give Me Billions of Dollars of Free Cash." They were also asked if they would work for a dollar a year....
Let me just state the obvious: Every single dollar Congress gives these three companies will be flushed right down the toilet.
So what to do? Members of Congress, here's what I propose: 1. Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. And because we are facing a massive economic, energy and environmental crisis, the new president and Congress must do what Franklin Roosevelt did when he was faced with a crisis (and ordered the auto industry to stop building cars and instead build tanks and planes): The Big Three are, from this point forward, to build only cars that are not primarily dependent on oil and, more importantly to build trains, buses, subways and light rail (a corresponding public works project across the country will build the rail lines and tracks). This will not only save jobs, but create millions of new ones.
2. You could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion.... (You're going to demand collateral anyway if you give them the "loan," and because we know they will default on that loan, you're going to own the company in the end as it is....)
....This proposal will save our industrial infrastructure -- and millions of jobs. More importantly, it will create millions more. It literally could pull us out of this recession. In contrast, yesterday General Motors presented its restructuring proposal to Congress. They promised, if Congress gave them $18 billion now, they would, in turn, eliminate around 20,000 jobs....
These idiots don't deserve a dime. Fire all of them, and take over the industry for the good of the workers, the country and the planet. What's good for General Motors IS good for the country. Once the country is calling the shots.Maybe not put the country in charge, Mike — your faith in government is too closely connected to joy in our electing an intelligent man of conscience after eight years of unspeakable ineptitude and corruption. But remember, eight years from now, or maybe even four, someone else will move in. And even now, the Crawford Cowboy is pushing all kinds of
fuck-the-environment rules through that will cement his legacy as Apophis the Destroyer. So, it's a bad idea to equate good leadership with good government.
But demand mass transit equipment in exchange for money to stay afloat? Absolutely. Those are just borrowing terms, legally-binding conditions to be met; if not met, then it's foreclosure and eviction time,
sayonara CEOs and
wiedersehen Detroit.
Even the evil scorpion from Texas once said, "You're either with us, or against us." Time for the Detroit Three to realize that it's not the quality of their products, or the prices, or the styles or brands or any other related superficial elements that matter. It's that people worldwide know, with extreme certainty, that gasoline prices will be skyrocketing again as soon as the current
low demand = high supplies = low prices equation is replaced by a
low demand + low supplies = high prices anyway reality. Supplies
can't stay high forever; Detroit got nailed when a lot more people realized this than had been willing to acknowledge it before the jump from $1.50 to $4.75 a gallon.
But so has Japan been nailed by the same realization, and Korea, and Germany, and Italy, and Britain. It's not the
kind of car that's getting buyers hung up, or the availability of credit. It's the fact that
cars are no longer an efficient or sustainable means of transportation. The first important crack has been made in 20th century ideology. Many more will follow.
Meanwhile, Detroit CEOs will have to adjust to a new reality, that what they make has to be what we truly
need, and not just what their ad agencies are paid to tell us we
want. It's all very simple, if they just come to realize that even the mightiest steel machine will always give way to the tiniest green seed.
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