Monday, November 17, 2008

Scary words

Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.”
-- Rahm Emanuel
I suspect this means that the federal government, that paragon of innovation and efficiency, is now going to use its vast manufacturing expertise to straighten out the auto industry. This can't be good.

In normal times people might object to this, perhaps pointing out that perhaps the decision about what cars to make should be left to businessmen rather than politicians. Perhaps they might also point out that the federal government is one of the few entities with health care and pensions obligations in deeper trouble than Detroit.

But these are not normal times. It's, as Emanuel says, a crisis. And the feds are going to take full advantage to implement all kinds of silly ideas that normally wouldn't pass muster. Watch out.

Update: Previous government efforts at car manufacturing on display here.

1 comment:

zi said...

from the jump -

They were based on a design by Fiat, except much uglier and without the advantage of operating with any degree of reliability.

totally false (except the Fiat part) i would've rather taken a Lada taxi any day of the week in Uzbekistan rather than the plastic Korean-made vehicles they import. you felt like you were driving in a tank. i wish i could've imported one to the US. granted, his other statements are true.