I’ve been listening is disbelief to the debate taking place on capital hill this week. GM, Ford, and Chrysler for the past 25 years have been making mediocre cars, and until relatively recently were actually getting away with it. Now, due to a global slump in demand, they are being harder hit than quality companies like BMW and Toyota, and are pandering to the government for a bailout.
The capitalist in me doesn’t want these companies to get one cent. In business, if you make products people want, you do well. If you make, well, shitty products, the opposite happens. These companies have wrapped themselves in mediocrity for decades and are now asking for a bailout. Part of me wants us to let them fail, and not reward companies for producing poor quality gas guzzling cars that no one wants.
Stepping back from this debate and looking at the very sobering numbers on the number of Americans out of work and the overall health of our economy, it makes me think twice. These companies SHOULD improve or fail. But, is now the time to prove this point? I believe that psychology is important, and I’m concerned that while it’s right to let them fail, that the American public (and the World for that matter) can’t take another big blow. Not right now. We need to recover a bit before we pull this plug (or a miracle happens and they actually produce cars that people want). And therefore, I think we should consider paying for mediocrity for a little while. It’s potentially far cheaper than the alternative.
