The Big Three beg

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The American auto industry has rarely given the impression of being desperate, preferring to keep things quiet and reassure the shareholders on Wall Street by pointing to the resiliency of the global industry it participates in.

This week on Capitol Hill is a demonstration of how far things have deteriorated for Detroit.

Top executives from Ford, GM, and Chrysler have all essentially gone to the congressional committee chambers and given every excuse they possibly can to garner the good graces of the Congressional purse with a $25 billion bailout – even, with a wince, begging for assistance.

However, with the exception of legislators from states with factories making Big Three cars, most of the members of Congress are not interested in propping up an antiquated system that won’t change the way business is done, even when the tides of the global market dictate the unequivocal need to modernize or suffer the consequences.

Of course, the argument for the bailout of the Big Three is that if the credit and banking industries can get 28 times more financial support without so much as a peep from Congress in the amount of $700 billion, why is Congress splitting hairs over $25 billion for as crucial a manufacturing juggernaut as the American auto industry?

Tragically, the Big Three are not the only hungry mouths to feed when it comes to industry, and other American businesses are faltering.

The brutal truth is that the Big Three have not heeded the warnings – not when environmental standards on carbon emissions were needed, not when gas mileage efficiency standards were needed and not when better manufacturing practices to offset foreign competition were needed.

I do find that the UAW and other labor unions need to keep labor rights in place, but they also need to wake up to the reality of globalization as much as the executives. You live by the global markets, and you die by the global markets.

Even now I don’t think Detroit sees trouble in its midst, since those executives pleading to Congress seem to blindly believe they will get what they seek, no questions asked. Now that they are experiencing resistance, they are willing to result to the next best option – hold Detroit and the three million jobs at stake hostage.

I do not believe Detroit should go away without something to keep things going, but I also do not believe Congress should have to clean up Detroit’s own mess, especially when it refuses to learn its lesson.

The alternative to Detroit collapsing because of Ford, GM, and Chrysler going under would devastate the state of Michigan and gravely injure the American job market. However, if there is a silver lining to all of this, the Big Three will have finally learned its lesson – the hard way.