Seth Godin on Detroit

[dawgball]

For those of you unfamiliar with Seth's dry humor, the first portion about being uniquely qualified is being said tongue-in-cheek.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/what-to-do-abou.html

I would LOVE IT if this is the direction our auto industry goes in. People blinded by the Big 3 (and the Big 2 political parties) don't realize how easy of a reality this is.

The people who would be slapped in the face by reality in this scenario are the ~900,000 people directly employed by the current auto industry. Both management and laborers would quickly realize how EASY they all have had it for the last several decades.

 

[Terryray]

from excellent piece by David Yermack:


Yermack estimates that the aggregate capital investment in GM and Ford since 1980 has let to a net reduction in capital of $465 billion...?the capital destruction...has been breathtaking,?

--with that $465 billion, ?GM and Ford could have closed their own facilities and acquired all of the shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Volkswagen.?

?When a company makes money-losing investments, the cost falls upon all of society.?

"If the government diverts our national savings into businesses that have long track records of destroying investment capital, eventually we'll end up with an economy like France's -- or Zimbabwe's."