Ah man! I'm having writer's block. I cant get a blurb going and I cant harness my thoughts. There is SO much to write about and I honestly don't know where to start...or where to finish. Lets start with the economy. Things are not looking good in Motown. heck things are not looking good in "Yo-town", either. Detroit, the city that gave us the first car, Aretha Franklin, Kiss and Madonna, is going through some difficult times. OK, lets get real. Detroit has been in a funk since 1970. We traded Passion and style for a K-Car. Goodbye to those cars that were inspired by America's Optimism. Those fabulous fins... the incredible curves. The cars that looked like they could fly (even though they couldn't) to us, seemed like they did. In the 50's, and 60's, America was flying.
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So do you bail out Detroit? I say yes, but with some serious conditions. #1 End the Unions. Union agreements amount to a burdened cost of $1600 dollars per car. Honda and Toyota has a burdened labor cost of only $200 dollars. There was a time and place for Unions, but they have ultimately negotiated unsustainable labor contracts. In the long term, reasonable labor agreements will mean MORE American workers. Lets get real with Unions. #2 Fire the current CEO's and leadership teams. They drove GM and Ford in the ditch with Big SUV's and uninspiring designs. Giving them 25 Billion would be a total waste of taxpayer dollars. #3 Make a serious commitment to Beautiful, fuel efficient (in the short term) cars, and (in the long term) next gen alternative fuel vehicles, that would be viable to sell not only in America but in Europe and Japan. Yes, let America own the Automobile world again. We CAN do this. #4 Make cars AFFORDABLE! In India, they came up with a car that retails for $2500. A $5000 car is not impossible. Make affordable cars, and they will sell. It should not take 60 months or something crazy like 72 or 78 months to pay for a car. THIS is the kind of conversation they should be having in Washington and Detroit.
Word!
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