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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A shameful display from Detroit
And no, I'm not even talking about the Lions. Their 0-16 season looks heroic compared to the pan-handling, rent-seeking, name-calling, self-pitying and grovelling coming from Detroit pundits, auto execs, union bosses and politicians. Some of the most ludicrous things are flying about day after day in defense of a massive money grab (aka: redistribution, theft) by the big three. Rather than realizing their tough situation, rolling up their sleeves and setting about the difficult task of righting their respective ships, they've chosen to blame others who are more successful, to whine, to grovel, and to plead before no-nothing pompous politicians. Have some dignity Detroit! At least Rod Marinelli didn't beg for money from Washington.
Karen De Coster writes about some of the crazier things coming out of Detroit of late:
"The Union is squaring off against the South again. This time it's Detroit's union — the UAW — partnering with the auto manufacturers, politicians, and media supporters of the domestic auto industry to wage warfare against the entire South.
"The problem here centers on certain southern states — Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and, in particular, Alabama — where certain bone-headed senators seem to have forgotten that the Civil War ended, with the appropriate outcome, almost 150 years ago.
What's more, these Alabama representatives argued that they and other southern states had plenty of automotive manufacturing capacity to take up the slack and keep the country's economy going if Detroit was to go belly up. Specifically, Alabama's Republican senator Richard Shelby called Detroit a 'dinosaur' and said bankruptcy was a better solution to the problems facing U.S. carmakers. The state's other senator, Jeff Sessions, also a Republican, said Detroit's collapse would "not be the end of the world. We have a very large and vibrant automobile sector in Alabama."
That's Detroit News columnist John McCormick, who labeled Southern politicians opposing the bailout "good old southern boys."
Detroiters continue to embarrass themselves by placing the auto industry collapse into an us-versus-them framework. In the midst of all the whining and begging for a bailout, the South has been declared the new enemy, along with the foreign-car manufacturers who are producing cars — in Southern plants — that consumers want to buy. The army of politicians and opinion columnists in Michigan who lay the groundwork for resuscitating this fading industry don't bother to acknowledge that it is in the best interests of any public company to maximize quality for its customers and efficiency of production and profits for its shareholders."
And...
"Getting back to John McCormick's limp line of reasoning, he ends his column by implying that Michiganders should boycott Alabama — especially the retirees and warm-weather family vacationers. As always, the little guys are told to give up their way of life to preserve the high-paying jobs of corporate and union executives — along with the jobs of people who make cars no one wants to buy. But what's in it for them? National pride?"
I can't handle this shameful display of prideless whimpering and excuse-making for ineptitude any longer, I'm gonna go watch the Lions game on my DVR as a reprieve.
(Cross-posted on the SFEblog)
Posted by Isaac Morehouse on December 30, 2008 in Economic freedom | Permalink
Comments
The columnists, politicos, and other union sucking dogs in detroit can whine and disparage us all they want to-we'll buy Toyotas even more if they keep it up.
Posted by: j | 2008-12-30 9:35:11 AM
There are some very excellent posts on this website in relation to the economic crisis, bailouts, etc. I hope the casual surfers are duly appreciative.
The message: (a) Government was the problem in the first place; and (b) government is going to make matters worse for longer.
Posted by: Grant Brown | 2008-12-30 11:55:54 AM
The whole thing is just disgusting isn't it?
The Big 3 have run their course and failed.
These so called "businessmen" now want Big Brother to save them and are pointing fingers at the southern states with their foreign auto manufacturing plants. It's just "not fair" is it?
So they go running off to mommy and complain. And naturally our own Parliament is going to jump on the same band wagon using the same band aid on a gaping wound. It won't work.
And I love the Union VS the South analogy, its perversely wrong and innaccurate but that doesn't stop the spin doctors does it? :)
I'm reminded of Lincoln's Gettysburgh address...
A government of the people, by the people and for the people...great speech, except it should have been given by Andrew Jackson to have been accurate.
Posted by: JC | 2008-12-30 12:08:45 PM
...maybe we all should go and discuss this at their multi-million dollar golf ranch?
Posted by: tomax7 | 2008-12-30 12:34:49 PM
Time for the Big Three and the unions to find out what the others are doing right and outdo it. Therefore shut up, suck it up and put up.
Posted by: DML | 2008-12-30 9:50:09 PM
If you want to get an appreciation for the relevance of Detroit in the national scheme of things, go to www-Realtors-dot-com and look at the houses for sale.
It is simply amazing that Detroiters have turned their collective backs on their city.
Posted by: Canucklehead | 2008-12-31 10:08:22 AM
I have a friend in Detroit who works for the DND there. She tells me that downtown Detroit is pretty much run by gangs day and nights and most folks avoid it like the plague.
Its a symtom of a greater disease.
Posted by: JC | 2008-12-31 10:24:17 AM
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