More Thoughts on GM

Michael Moore wrote a piece which was a scathing attack on GM management. He said that their practice of building cars that would fall apart in two year … planned obsolesence … was what got them into trouble. He wrote, "The company which invented planned obsolesence … the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years." He also talked about management fight against federal requirements for air quality, fuel economy, and safety regulations. I believe he's probably right on.

But, then he went on and said, "… (this) corporation (has) ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with." I'm not sure that it's fair to blame GM for those kinds of things. People are responsible for the decisions they make. They have to live with the consequences of their actions.

My daughter and I were discussing the Moore piece via e-mail and she told me of a friend she had in Lansing, Michigan whose husband worked the night shift for Oldsmobile and spent most of it in a bar on the clock. And, in that kind of an environment, those workers couldn't help but build cars that would fall apart in two years.

I just know that the whole thing is sad. Hell, I was walking out of my local Meijer's store yesterday and the parking lot was strewn with trash. Where did that come from? People throw away wrappers, used cans, sales receipts, the contents of car ashtrays without ever thinking about what it's going to look like. The streets and roads in southeast Michigan, especially along the expressways and in Detroit, are a real mess. It's symptomatic of a bigger problem that has something to do with people caring about something beyond themselves.

It's tiring.