Washington Post automotive reviewer and Detroit apologist Warren Brown is black. While I couldn’t care less about Warren’s skin color, his latest appeal on behalf of his benefactors’ bailout billions is beyond the pale. It focuses exclusively on his ethnicity, suggesting that The Big 2.8 deserve federal money because they’ve put Warren’s “people” on the “road to success.” “I am a black child of the Deep South who watched legions of neighbors and relatives flee economic apartheid in pursuit of opportunity in the automobile factories of Michigan and Ohio and in the steel plants of Pennsylvania and Indiana… The American Three — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — largely have been responsible for the development of a black middle class in this country. Many children of factory workers followed their parents onto automobile assembly lines. But many others went to colleges and universities, medical and technical schools, thanks to good UAW salaries and educational benefits.” His point being? “People make mistakes. But redemption is found in the good that they do, and the domestic automobile industry has done a lot of tangible good for this nation.” And now, the close: a suggestion that not bailing out Detroit would lead to class warfare (implied: a return to racism). “An America that manufactures nothing, or an America that owns nothing it manufactures, is an America with a frightfully vulnerable middle class — an America that threatens to become a society starkly divided between haves and have-nots, a throwback to the Deep South of my segregated youth. That is not the America I want.”
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While I think his points have “some” merit, handing money to Rick will help no one other than Rick and those closest to him on the corporate ladder. It’s undeniable though that the UAW has been at the fore of building the middle class in several ways.
The Desperate-3 are calling in their IOUs.
Doesn’t matter if consumers won’t buy ’em. Decades of disposable cars and shoddy business practices have taken their toll. Embittered by appalling product quality and inexcusable customer care tens of millions of potential buyers, an entire generation, have permanently deleted domestic brands from consideration.
Hummmm…
So the Detroit 3 helped only black people. How ’bout the white European immirant or the poor farm boys who came to the city? The Big 3 idn’t help them?
Talk about convuluted thinking…
And, on a side note (and hopefully mildly humorous) if ole Ford had known this, I betcha he’d a nver started that ole factory!
Doesn’t matter if consumers won’t buy ‘em.
Gee, it must have been some other entity in North America, not consumers, who bought 400,000 cars & light trucks last month from Ford, GM & Chrysler, about 55% of the total.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good argument.
tens of millions of potential buyers, an entire generation, have permanently deleted domestic brands from consideration
You mean the generation that thinks that it’s so smart, sophisticated and clever that they spend hundreds of dollars on irreparable consumer electronics and think they’re getting a deal on the iPod they buy to replace the broken one that’s too expensive to fix out of warranty because the new one has a colored case and a bigger hard drive that distracts them from noticing that Apple is essentially charging a subscription fee? That generation?
Warren Brown Plays the Race Card
Every year during the NAIAS I get a kick out of the Annual Golden Wheels Awards. It’s a gala affair that hands out “diversity” awards to the car companies, sponsored by On Wheels Publications, publishers of African Americans On Wheels, Asians On Wheels, and Latinos On Wheels.
Brown is an editor of On Wheels and does their radio show/podcasts.
The magazines are typically distributed as inserts in daily newspapers serving those ethnic communities. They exist because advertisers are attracted to the buying power of those same communities.
Ever since I saw AAOW for the first time, I’ve considered starting a similar publication for another minority group with at least a little bit of buying power. How does Wandering Jews sound?
Frankly, I don’t see what problem you have with what he said. His historical facts are true.
The domestic automakers are still dedicated to hiring minorities and giving them the chance to move up through the ranks of management. They also are dedicated to sourcing from minority owned suppliers . . . many of whom will surely go under if they tank.
They are also committed to supporting local charities wherever their facilities are located . . . and I don’t mean the PR department giving to the local symphony. I mean the employees, giving their money and their time to local United Way, children’s hospitals, halfway houses for abused women, schools for the disabled, etc, etc, etc. In spite of continued headcount reductions, increased medical policy costs and copays, stagnant wages, etc, my department of roughly 200 people still raised $40K in one day this summer for a local women’s shelter. This happens wherever there is a domestic auto presence.
Maybe the transplants do these things, I don’t know. I do know that culturally they come from one of the most racist countries on the planet.
You slag anyone who disagrees with your viewpoint, and accuse them of being in the pocket of the auto companies. Maybe some people just give a shit for more than pure market-driven economics, and making sure they squeeze the absolute most for themselves out of every transaction they take part in, regardless of the cost.
If I remember my site history, it was not too long ago that there were plenty of articles and posts gleefully pointing out that a GM Chapter 11 would give them the legal opportunity to dump their pension obligations . . . leaving tens of thousands of elderly, loyal former employees SOL with their pensions and medical insurance.
That’s a pretty perfect summation of the attitude of many of the posters here. And let me tell you . . . it’s not a flattering picture.
Wait… what? Speaking as a former metro Detroit native who’s relocated to North Carolina, I would say that there is more racial harmony here than in the Detroit area. Yes, many African Americans moved up north following the civil rights area. However, the influx of people competing for a limited number of jobs, as well as some good ‘ol fashion discrimination culminated in a complete melt-down in 1967.
Of course, some things have changed over the years. This election, North Carolina is a blue State.
Preserving the middle class of America – whatever the color – should be the priority in this matter.
One of the arguments used by Lee Iaccoca to get a federal loan guarantee was that Chrysler was a major employer of African Americans.
dkulmacz: “there were plenty of articles and posts gleefully pointing out that a GM Chapter 11 would give them the legal opportunity to dump their pension obligations . . . leaving tens of thousands of elderly, loyal former employees SOL with their pensions and medical insurance.”
I’m sure a bankruptcy judge wouldn’t eliminate those pensions, but rather reduce them to levels thought affordable within the reorganization plan. Even in Chapter 7 (liquidation of the company) retirees would have benefits coming from the PBGC. Also, auto workers’ history of relatively high wages mean their Social Security benefits will be above average. As for medical insurance, again I think it’s more likely the judge would approve the use of copays and deductibles to bring pre-Medicare retirees’ health insurance expense to affordable levels. If a retiree under 65 absolutely cannot afford to buy medical insurance, the answer is to go back to work. Those over 65 will have Medicare, a choice of supplemental plans, and the opportunity to learn how the rest of ordinary Americans live.
Re WB: Sad when people take such fabricated, cheap outs as that when they don’t have a real point to make.
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also @dkulmacz:
“You slag anyone who disagrees with your viewpoint” -Yet you feel perfectly fine labeling all Japanese as racists. Who’s the whiny determinist now?
(btw, there is nothing less tolerant than a Liberal preaching tolerance)
Going through life as if you constantly have to be kissing everyone’s ass is no way to live.
Before you read a prefab agenda into things, the discussion was about the big 2.8 Overpaying the employees and the unions in EVERY possible way.
–GM in particular has had benefits so incredibly rich for relatively unskilled workers, that it’s been called nicknames like “Mother GM” for quite awhile.
If my granny can scrape by on Medicare, so can GM retirees, period.
+++a surprising % of charities are wildly inefficient, giving very little to the actual people, btw. Can I get a Clinton Charity Dinner, anyone?
Leave the Communism to the Cubans, the Chinese & the French.
If Warren’s “people” were a great deal helped by GM, then his “people” should fund the bailout. But not me.
GM screwed a lot more people, regardless of color, over with their crappy cars.. costing middle-class families combined millions in car repairs, etc. My mom’s 1989 Grand Am bought new stopped working at 80k, forcing her to buy another car, costing thousands. :/
I agree with William 100%. You can get by on medicare et al. My dad does. And the whole wages/benefits the workers get… it’s ridiculous when unskilled labor makes more than educated, professional people.
Boo GM. Totally upside down backwards company.
@Bozoer Rebbe:
If 400k cars and trucks were sold last month, and the combined loss of the D3 was in the Billions last month, clearly they’re not able to sell enough in volume or at a high enough price for their current business model to function.
So what if they have 55% of the market. They’re doing so racking up enormous losses.
I get the typical GM apologist line – blame the customer. They’re too stupid buying their iPods. Give me a break. Too bad bitching doesn’t bring in higher profits per sale. If GM and their apologists spent this effort building truly outstanding products, this wouldn’t be a discussion.
Not sure I understand the nature of his point.
It sounds like he is positioning all the good the automakers have done for humanity.
Looking around, he can now observe that the president of the US will be black. The population of Detroit is overwhelmingly black- no longer a minority. Yet once the automakers go under, all the civil rights gains of the last few decades will vanish, equality existing only as a tenuous proposition depending on the success of overcharging customers on SUVs.
He is asking minorities to bail out Detroit?
He did manage to say that – The unions demanded more pay and benefits but seldom petitioned for better product quality. Auto executives and their shareholders asked for more profits and productivity but often shied away from expensive innovations to avoid upsetting the moneychangers on Wall Street.
“The Big 2.8 deserve federal money because they’ve put Warren’s “people” on the “road to success.” ”
(insert obligatory comment about rap stars, “ballers”, and bling bling Escalades here).
Oh it just keeps getting better. Check out the latest…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111401262.html
Now we’re sophists.
Talk about hypocrisy! The people who worked at the auto companies got the best job they could, and using the system that was in place. They had a literal contract with the company outlining the benefits they would receive, while working and after retirement. Yet you are so damn jealous of them that now you would prefer the company weasel out of the agreement and welch on benefits that were promised, that were used by people to plan their lives.
Talk about communism! You’re pissed because they got a better deal than your granny, so you want to redistribute their wealth from them! Because you have made the decision that they did not really earn it.
If your boss offered you a raise (or your client offered to pay you a higher fee) and you didn’t think you really deserved it . . . would you turn it down on principle? If you answer ‘no’, then shut up and stop asking others to have held to a standard you would not. If you say ‘yes’ . . . then you are a liar, plain and simple.
It has been said here and in other threads . . . this comes down to political idealism and personal vendetta. For one or both of these, the majority here are willing to piss away their humanity. I read ‘Atlas Shrugged’, too, and thought it was all the shit for a few years. Then I allowed a bit or real life to seep into my worldview, and I realized what a narrow, hateful screed that philosophy becomes when put into practice. Just as Mr Marx’s wonderful fantasy becomes a scourge when actually implemented . . . so does Ms Rand’s.
this columnist, Mr Brown, reminds me of Washington Mutual’s last press release, the day before they went bankrupt:
SEATTLE, WA (September 24, 2008) – Washington Mutual, Inc. (NYSE:WM), one of the nation’s leading banks for consumers and small businesses, has once again been recognized as a top employer by Hispanic Business magazine and the Human Rights Campaign.
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights organization, also awarded WaMu its second consecutive 100 percent score …
Bozoer Rebbe wrote:
“You mean the generation that thinks that it’s so smart, sophisticated and clever that they spend hundreds of dollars on irreparable consumer electronics and think they’re getting a deal on the iPod they buy to replace the broken one that’s too expensive to fix out of warranty because the new one has a colored case and a bigger hard drive that distracts them from noticing that Apple is essentially charging a subscription fee? That generation?”
LMAO Bozoer! My National Merit Scholar wife gave up on Ford when her 2000 Ford Focus left her stranded one too many times. She ‘smartened up’ and purchased a 2004 Honda Civic Si. She would never again buy a domestic. I read her your post as she sat in front of her Sony laptop playing with her two (!) Apple ipods. “Hey now!” was her response. At least we can laugh at ourselves!
I wish there was some way to escape from this ‘made in China throw away cheap consumer goods’ economy we have created!
“…the moneychangers on Wall Street…”?
A bit of racism on the part of Brown, perhaps, or would he have to have called them Shylocks to be accused of that?
The American Three — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — largely have been responsible for the development of a black middle class in this country.
There is truth to this point. However, a LOT of poor southern whites moved to Detroit as well. Detroit’s horrible race issues stem mainly from these migrations of southerners bringing their views and problems up here with us.
See: Downriver communities of Detroit for further knowledge of the southern migration to Detroit.
Why isn’t there a link to push so I can read this post in Espanol?
It is the language of America’s future.
DKulmacz:
The UAW signed collective bargaining agreements with GM. Note that the American taxpayer was not a co-signer to this arrangement, nor a guarantor of the perpetual validity of GM. Neither I, nor my elected representatives, were ever a party to the CBA, and so I object to having to ensure its performance. Important, expensive contracts are breached in this nation all the time. No one calls the US government in to prop up the breaching party.
UAW workers made the decision to join a union shop. The union promised it would look out for the members’ interests; it failed by implementing tunnel vision in a manner that only looked out for its members, not the company it supposedly was in partnership with. Get while the gettin’s good…well, now look. It’s not the workers’ fault, it’s the union bosses’ fault for not having a big-picture perspective. Inadequate representation in the extreme. Management is equally to blame, of course.
It’s a failed and outdated business model that cannot last forever. Lots of industrial cities (Rochester, for example) have suffered through the decline of once-proud giants who met reality (Eastman Kodak). The people adapt, retool, and move on.
Where was their bailout? And why should they have to pay for Detroit’s industry?
A special form of bankruptcy should be created for the Big 3 that radically recreates the business model but preserves the industry. The party is over.
ROC,
I did not mention government, I mentioned nothing of a bailout, I did not advocate taking taxpayer money. I simply pointed out the fact that 1) many posters here joyously proclaimed the fact that a CH11 would allow GM to dump its obligations as a good thing; and 2) many posters here also express a pretty strong sentiment that UAW workers or retirees are ‘undeserving’ of what they have, and deserve to lose it.
Many people here do not even have the good taste to feign concern for their fellow man by prefacing their comments with things like “it’s too bad the retirees would have to suffer” or “I hate to see so many people lose their jobs”. Nope. As the Rebbe has pointed out, there is mucho hate here. My 92 year old aunt who worked as a secretary and my 74 year old father-in-law who worked blue collar jobs — both for over 40 years — are not in any way responsible for this mess. To them, it may as well be an act of God. Being happy that they get screwed over because your dad blew a head gasket on his ’88 Cavalier is shameful.
Point taken. I am not happy this is happening. Upstate NY was once part of the greatest industrial region in the world. Now it is the American equivalent of East Germany. Everyone has to move, or suffer.
If there is any sort of satisfaction I would take from an auto bankruptcy, it would be this: the mindless, cash-cow manufacturing culture that has brainwashed people and local government in MI, OH, upstate NY, etc. will be broken irreparably. The cradle-to-grave model of employment is a relic that does not exist in any other region or industry. The overreliance on a single (or group of) huge manufacturers to take care of everything has stifled the growth of the people and the metro areas/states where it has taken place. People have this fantasy that they are entitled to “Cadillac” compensation and social services (education, etc.) with a “Chevy” economic environment. The world has simply changed since 1975.
I would even back generous aid for the PEOPLE who suffered – special unemployment compensation arrangement, tax breaks, etc. to see these people through to better days. But to keep Leviathan alive is a waste of money.
RF: I can’t help wondering whether it might not be better just to ignore Warren Brown (who is of course proof that undeserved affirmative action lives at the Washington Post).
Bozoer Rebbe: if the cars were good, Wandering Jews would certainly put a smile on my face!
Nonetheless, in general, I’m one liberal who is absolutely sick of identity politics. I hope Obama can make it totally obsolete.
dkulmacz: You are indeed a breath of fresh air.
I live in Oshawa the motor city of Canada.
For years a certain neighbor has been telling me
that he buys what he wants to buy.He laughs at my CAW supplied licence plate frame{buy domestic}
Today I’m out washing my car.Neighbor says “Mikey
our property value has plummeted”Yeah I,m painfully aware dude.Oh by the way is your BMW still in the shop?Its ok cause you can drive your wifes KIA.I mean really, its not like she needs it,she was layed of a month ago.
Mr. Rebbe, your numbers are WAAAAY off:
From Businessweek, 10/26/08-
“Just 42% of U.S. consumers who bought a new car or truck during the past three months chose one made by Detroit companies, down from 47% a year ago — a rapid decline that might have been aggravated not just by the suffering economy but also by the lower income levels of U.S.-brand customers.”
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600-200810260901KRTRIB__BUSNEWS_58955-2NPFRR1UPV19HFEHIEGKG40FBI¶ms=timestamp%7C%7C10/26/2008%209:01%20AM%20ET%7C%7Cheadline%7C%7CCredit%20crunch%20hits%20buyers%20of%20Detroit%203%3A%20Retail%20market%20share%20is%20down%20%5BDetroit%20Free%20Press%5D%7C%7CdocSource%7C%7CKnight%20Ridder/Tribune%7C%7Cprovider%7C%7CACQUIREMEDIA%7C%7Crealtedsyms%7C%7C%7CUS%3BGM%7CUS%3BF%7CUS%3BTM%7CUS%3BHMC%7CUS%3BNSANY
Mr. Rebbe, your numbers are WAAAAY off the mark:
From Businessweek, 10/26/08-
“Just 42% of U.S. consumers who bought a new car or truck during the past three months chose one made by Detroit companies, down from 47% a year ago — a rapid decline that might have been aggravated not just by the suffering economy but also by the lower income levels of U.S.-brand customers.”
Ah, but don’t let facts get in the way of a good hyperbole.