The future is stupid
Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 8:31 am
GM and Ford are undergoing massive downsizing, lay offs, etc.
How did it happen?
Mostly the same way it happened last time, in the 70s. Fuel is cheap, so a gas guzzler is the best way to enjoy subsidized suburban sprawl and trips to the super stores. Gas gets expensive. The foreign car makers live in places without highly subsidized sprawl and super big box retail. They gain a lot of market share.
The chances are small there will be a viable replacement or supplement for oil. At least to an extent that makes it possible to do things exactly as we have been doing(free trade, illegal immigrants, export manufacturing jobs, hollow out cities and towns, subsidize sprawl, oil wars). On the slim chance there is, I have little doubt Ford and GM will end up in exactly the same situation they are now within a decade or two of that solution.
How did it happen?
Mostly the same way it happened last time, in the 70s. Fuel is cheap, so a gas guzzler is the best way to enjoy subsidized suburban sprawl and trips to the super stores. Gas gets expensive. The foreign car makers live in places without highly subsidized sprawl and super big box retail. They gain a lot of market share.
The chances are small there will be a viable replacement or supplement for oil. At least to an extent that makes it possible to do things exactly as we have been doing(free trade, illegal immigrants, export manufacturing jobs, hollow out cities and towns, subsidize sprawl, oil wars). On the slim chance there is, I have little doubt Ford and GM will end up in exactly the same situation they are now within a decade or two of that solution.