Hey, did you hear the good news? Apparently all of Bushs bold initiatives over the past few years really are creating jobs Unfortunately, most of them are with al-Qaida.
So, I felt well enough this morning to crawl out of bed, fire up the computer, and begin catching up on the news, and whats the first thing I read? Al-Qaida has apparently grown to 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world.
George Bush was better for al-Qaida than the Wheres the Beef? campaign was for Wendys. Mark Maynard, 2004
I also saw a neat little piece of reporting on Ford F-150 crash tests and how they compare to those of other, smaller vehicles, like the Mini Cooper I hate to give it all away, but apparently you get to keep your legs if you hit a wall going 40 miles-per-hour in a Mini Cooper. The same cannot be said for the F-150.
Somehow, however, the thing that depressed me the most was this article from the New Yorker on all the bloggers with book deals. I can accept the fact that were losing the War on Terror, and I can accept the fact that American automakers are incompetent assholes, but I cannot accept the fact that my fellow bloggers are moving past me in this quest for meaningless acceptance. That really makes me bitter.
Im going back to bed now.
3 Comments
I’m sure there are very nice people in the American auto industry. And I’m sure that most of them would actually work very aggressively toward the goal of saving human legs. (No legs left behind.) With that said, however, I don’t have a lot of praise for the management of the Big Three. As some of you might know, a year or so ago I bought a new car, a Honda Civic hybrid. My only two choices at that time were Honda and Toyota. Most of the American automakers, from what I could tell, were more interested in making bigger, more dangerous, less fuel-efficient urban assault vehicles… And please don’t now send me notes telling me that they’re just giving Americans what they want. I don’t buy that as an excuse.
As much as Im tempted to just sit back and quietly accept your anonymous jabs at Mark, I feel compelled to jump in and voice my support, at least for his decision to purchase a hybrid vehicle. While its true that there are other comparable vehicles (within five miles per gallon or so) on the market that cost less, its also true that this new technology would never get off the ground in America if early adopters didnt get on board to support it. If Im not mistaken, the average miles per gallon in the US is the same now as it was in the era of the Model T, and thats pathetic. Hybrid technology has been around for a long time, but no one here wanted to challenge the status quo. No, they wanted to spend their R&D money on making large, obnoxious vehicles with heated seats and self-lowering staircases. Thankfully, companies like Honda have been a bit more responsible with their initiatives.
It’s difficult to balance corporate responsibility and shareholder value. The two are constantly at odds. Shareholders want more sales, higher profit margin, a greater market share. They dont typically want higher wages, more expensive yet more sustainable manufacturing processes, etc. Certainly, they dont want to get out of the SUV market if its booming and if people are willing to pay a premium for these tank-like vehicles. (The profit margin on an SUV is much higher than any other vehicle segment.) You might disagree, but thats where I think that government needs to be involved. Government needs to set mileage standards and stick to them. They need to eliminate the tax incentives for some of the less environmentally friendly vehicles. The bottom line is that the worlds energy resources wont last forever but we keep acting as though they will. Its not sustainable. And yet our industry leaders still put profit above responsibility.