The end of the car era ?
On June 1, 2009 GM announced they were filing for bankruptcy. Once again, the American taxpayers, will have to pay for the stupidity and myopic vision of American automakers.
In the late 1960s, when Ralph Nader wrote his book “Unsafe at any speed”, American automakers were forced, by the government, to make their cars, safer and more reliable. Still, in the 70s and 80s, the Japanese were able to make better cars that responded to what car users really wanted. And at an affordable price too.
American auto manufacturers and their snotiness and laziness thought thought that they could really guess what was going on in the minds of American car buyers. So, while the Japanese word conducting thorough market studies, US auto minor factors kept on building cars that did not respond in any way, shape, or form to the wants and needs of the consumers.
It is only through sheer luck that US car manufacturers realized that they sold a lot of pickup trucks and SUVs So, for a while, they dominated that niche, until the Japanese and Koreans started to build pickup trucks and SUVs.
Now, with environmental concerns, people are less likely to buy SUVs. Then again, the Japanese learned and now they’re building nice, fuel-efficient, SUVs and pickup trucks. Again,by responding to consumer demand, Japanese sell more cars, but American car manufacturers, thinking their are, Almighty God, still do not respond to the needs of the American car buyers. So it is only through their own fault that they are in the situation that they are now. As far as I’m concerned let the Koreans and Japanese, and even the Chinese buy the American car manufacturers and show them how to build American cars that Americans will want to pay for.
Now, if we look beyond the immediate future, no matter that the Japanese are Koreans are Chinese or Brazilians make cars, cars are still cars, and regardless that we make them zero emission cars, they still kill people. They still create traffic jams, and they still require huge infrastructures and roads highways and bridges. The only solution, in the long term, to achieve true sustainable development, is to substantially reduce the number of cars and trucks and rely more on trains, buses and other forms of public transportation.
The biggest mistake that Americans did was to turn their entire economy over to individual cars. Instead of relying on trains like the Europeans did. It is only because Europeans and Asians want to catch up with the so-called American lifestyle that they want to have more and more automobiles. They are actually falling to the American trap. When instead they should be proud of having developed such efficient means of transportation as their high-speed trains.
The future of human society resides in the increased use of forms of transportation like trains for both freight and passengers. It has been proved that trains or far more fuel-efficient or, in a more general terms, more energy efficient than single individual trucks or cars. America faces cost over $1 trillion to rebuild their roads, bridges and highways. My suggestion is that they would spend more money developing high-speed trains and invest in research and development into other forms of transportation.
Even though the car manufacturing sector still employs a lot of the people in North America, over the next 20 years, all current employees, both directly or indirectly involved in the car industry, will retire. All that car manufacturers have to do is scale down their operations and never hire another employee. Of course, that would mean a slow death. A more realistic approach would be for car manufacturers to realize that they are not in the car business, but in the transportation business. They provide transport for people and freight. Transport involves anything from rollerskates to ships, planes, and yes, even trains.
If car manufacturers had invested in other transport related industries, they would not be in such a dire situation right now. So if car manufacturers are filing for bankruptcy, it is through their own narrow minded vision. I don’t think that taxpayers should be penalized for the stupidity of American car manufacturers.
