What to do about the automakers
Apparently there’s a limit on how many characters can be in a reply to a posted item on Facebook, so I have to post this here.
I’m responding to a comment that was generally in agreement with Tom Friedman’s column of 11 November 2008 about what to do about the automakers, but also frightened of the implications their failure will have on the economy, especially here in southeast Michigan:
I know, it’s a tough one. I feel sorry for all the employees (and retirees) who are being screwed, but on the other hand, if the market isn’t allowed to punish the shareholders (who will in turn punish the management), nothing will ever improve.
I also think that ultimately education is going to have to improved because there is no future for manufacturing in the US; Americans will do R&D, manufacturing will happen overseas. We just need more Americans capable of doing “brain work”.
My brilliant plan (just thought up while typing this): the government acquires the assets of the automakers for pennies on the dollar and auctions them off to the highest bidder (i.e. Toyota, Honda, and defense contractors (the only manufacturing that should stay domestic)).
With the capital raised by the sale, put some into health care, but most of it should go into alternative energy research and training. The white-collar auto workers can be trained to do engineering, etc., and the blue-collar workers can handle the massive deployment of new energy technologies.
(While they’re waiting for the research and engineering to happen, they can fix what President Elect Obama(!) has been calling our “crumbling infrastructure”. The Eisenhower Interstate System was designed to last 50 years[citation needed]. Time’s up.)
The Uselessness of Public Transit, thanks to Google
I don’t know how long Google Maps has been able to give directions using public transportation, because I’m sure Detroit has been late to that party. Now that there are some places in my area that Google tells me I can get to by bus (the only form of public transportation we’ve got, not that I’ve ever used it), it’s been really interesting to compare how long they estimate it would take to drive a route versus riding the bus.
With the perfect storm of peak oil, climate change, and enriching some unsavory characters (i.e. funding both sides of a war), I would love to be able to take the bus. Here’s why I don’t:
- From my house to the local college
- Driving: 10 minutes
- Bus: 55 minutes, including a 35-minute walk
- From my house to my yoga studio
- Driving: 6 minutes
- Bus: 42 minutes, only 2 of which are on the bus
- From my house to my dad’s workplace
- Driving: 17 minutes
- Bus: 2 hours, 48 minutes
Pretty pathetic.
