When we last checked-in with Washington Post columnist Warren Brown, he was showing the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid some love. Before that, he was predicting a Detroit comeback. And now Warren’s pimping for a federal bailout. Although we salute the WaPo car scribe for calling the federal loans by their real name, his argument for the 50 bil is equal parts belligerent and bizarre. For one thing, Warren blames his Capitol Hill brethren for The Big 2.8’s misery. “American politicians and regulators enabled Detroit’s profligacy. The same politicians who made a big show of demanding that Detroit produce more fuel-efficient cars and trucks did next to nothing to create a market for their sale. In fact, federal economic policy, deeply soaked in cheap gasoline, did just the opposite. By mandating more technical fuel economy without adjusting the price of the fuel consumed, federal policy lowered the cost of driving in the United States and, in turn, helped increase consumer demand for bigger vehicles and more horsepower. It was all good . . . until a meteoric rise in gasoline prices ended all of that.” Yes, well, Warren’s a moral relativist (as are several of our TTAC commentators). He believes that if we bail out Bear Stearns and Iraq we should bail out American manufacturing. Someone should tell Warren that the domestics receive plenty of federal, state and local tax breaks for their factories, just like the transplants. In case he forgot. [thanks to inept123 for the link]
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I am always irritated when I hear about the death of US auto manufacturing. Auto manufacturing is doing just fine in this country, thank you very much. Toyota in Kentucky and Texas, Germans across the South, Honda in Ohio, Subaru in Indiana…Toyota even produces Corolla platform cars profitably near Silicon Valley using UAW labor. The problem is NOT the domestic auto industry. The problem is GM, Ford and Chrysler management.
I am highly resentful that my tax dollars- and there will be real dollars laid out here- are going to prop up fat UAW workers and even fatter Detroit management. Shame on politicians who support this inane giveaway.
Someone should tell Warren that the transplants are building cars in California, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio and elsewhere. In case he forgot.
If US government intervention helps to keep our domestic nameplates outposts in Mexico City, Guandong, Seoul, and Bangalore, is that such a terrible thing Robert?
Do we really care what this guy says? His logic has all the power and elegance of a Trabant. Or maybe a Kia Rio.
The WaPo should be ashamed of itself for keeping him. If this is an example of affirmative action in action, it would generate a backlash, except that I don’t think anyone reads this guy. I certainly didn’t when I lived in DC, except when I was feeling the need to get pissed off about something.
btw, Brown knows that the transplants are building cars in the US (see the wapo article). But he thinks they have an unfair advantage over the 2.8, for having gotten local and state incentives to set up their factories. (That’s his compelling logic.)
The WaPo recently had a buyout–paying long-time reporters to retire. I heard their excellent science writer took it. Why they didn’t get this guy to take it…
Yet another apologist for the inexcusable greed and leadership ineptitude of GM.
To David Holzman:
Affirmative Action? You notice the guy is black and assume he didn’t get his job by being a decent writer who knows something about cars?
If you disagree with him, fine. Say so. For the record, I’m black and I disagree with him. But to inject race in this matter where it doesn’t belong puts the lie to the “color blind society” some whites say we’ve become.
Affirmative Action? You notice the guy is black and assume he didn’t get his job by being a decent writer who knows something about cars?
That’s the legacy of Affirmative Action: assume the minority got to where he/she is by social promotion, and not by their own merits.
And are you suggesting whites didn’t have this attitude BEFORE Affirmative Action? I wish I had a dollar for every time a white person looked at me and assumed I didn’t know my own job! And perhaps I should assume every white man got his job because of family connections, like George W. Bush.
Actually, Affirmative Action has been serving as a convenient scapegoat for white men in that they can blame it for their failure to get a desired job or promotion because no white man will admit to a black person or a woman (women are the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action) being better qualified than themselves. It’s easier for a white man to say “They had to give the job to a black guy (or woman)” than ” The other person was better suited (or had more experience or a better resume) than I did”.
jnik:
I’m white, but I’m with you and understand completely the need for the term “stupid Cracker” to be used occasionally.