Chrysler Shoots Itself In The Foot … Again. Good Riddance.

I haven’t been a fan of American auto manufacturing corporations for years.  By that, I mean the executives deigned worthy enough to run the companies … right into the ground.  I fully support the hard-working men and women employed by these over-sized behemoths.  The workers are the backbone of America’s middle class and receive my full support.  It’s not their fault their corporations have been run by greedy, immoral hypocritical liars for decades.

The latest proof?  Chrysler, who announced that they were dismantling their electric vehicle engineering team.  That’s the same team and program they promised American taxpayers would be in place as the begged for millions of our tax dollars to prop up their purposefully dysfunctional wasteland of a company.

This is obviously a very stupid move.  Regulations are now in place to force Chrysler and other car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency (a standard Chrysler and the others paid millions of dollars to fight for years).  The cost of meeting these standards are not prohibitive.  Chrysler and the others exist in the European and Asian car markets, which have had more robust standards for years.  They chose to make inefficient vehicles for American customers.  Given the price of oil and gas, guzzlers are no longer profitable to make because the American public has shifted its buying habits.  Shutting down an electric vehicle engineering team as the marketplace transitions to more fuel efficient vehicles is an absurd move to make.

But it goes further than just that.  It hurts other corporations and other workers.  A123 systems manufactures electric batteries for use in vehicles, among other things.  They could be a viable American success story: using ingenuity and entrepreneurship to exploit a market need.  They contracted with Chrysler to provide batteries earlier this spring.  What are they supposed to do?  What happens if they fail because Chrysler’s executives decided they wanted to fail?  That unnecessarily hurts the entire hybrid and electric vehicle market.

Much like the Wall St. banks who gladly accepted trillions of taxpayer bailout dollars with few strings attached, Chrysler has spit in Americans’ faces.  By doing so, they cement the company as the most likely to fail moving forward.  They have continued their crappy decision making from the 20th century too far into the 21st century.  By doing so, I say good riddance.  One less non-responsive corporation in the marketplace will do nothing but benefit consumers.

[h/t Climate Progress]

Shuttle Discovery & Obama’s Auto Plan – 3/30/09

A couple of news items I wanted to touch on today include the return of space shuttle Discovery to Earth and the Obama administration’s announcement today that GM and Chrysler’s restructuring plan fall short of their goals.

The Discovery mission to the International Space Station was mostly successful.  Astronauts installed the final set of solar panels, which will allow for fully planned power generation.  They also worked to repair the station’s water recycling sytem.  Both the solar panels and the water recycling system must work as planned if the station’s crew is to grow from 3 to 6 persons.  One negative from the mission was two external storage containers getting stuck during deployment.  The storage will hold station spare parts for the 2010-2014 time period when NASA won’t have a shuttle or their next generation craft flying.

Part of me supports the Obama administration’s rejection of the GM and Chrysler restructuring plans.  Both corporations are lacking innovation and a solid working model.  As such, they don’t deserve to receive billions of additional dollars in taxpayer money.  Another part of me recognizes that there are a lot of Americans that depend on GM and Chrysler for their jobs – directly and indirectly.  If these auto manufacturers are headed for bankruptcy reorganization, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing.  Plenty of other corporations have emerged from bankruptcy changed for the better.  At the end of the day, if GM and Chrysler can’t get it done, other companies are ready and waiting to expand in the void.  Will it be painless?  Of course not.  Nobody can say that change is painless.  Is it necessary?  It’s looking increasingly like it will be.

At the same time, Wall St. firms have ripped off the government (read: taxpayers) for billions of dollars.  They’re not being held to the same standards as are GM and Chrysler.  I would support the Obama decision more wholeheartedly if those standards applied to every corporation looking for corporate welfare for their crappy decisions.  If this decision marks a new chapter in the unfolding economic disaster we’re currently experiencing, all the better.  Greedy Wall St. corporations deserve this same kind of treatment and more.  If they don’t have valid, up-to-date operating plans, they deserve no more money than GM or Chrysler do.  Enforcement of laws already on the books to control Wall St. corporations should begin immediately.  The American people would be better served by fewer financial institutions that are held accountable.