Since we are going to bring the 'big three' into this, I would like to share a random internet e-mail going over the subject of the US automakers.

Originally Posted by Random E-mail

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company ( Ford Motors ) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing. Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.

The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles,) so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was
out-sourced to India.

Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can't make money paying American wages. TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses.

Having an uncle who at one time was a Ford employee, there is a lot of satire, but also a grain of truth in this story.

As to the original topic I personally favor a 'free market' approach IE deregulation when possible. However time and time again has shown that once a company becomes powerful enough they will fail to focus on improving their company or their product and instead turn to doing whatever they can to make a profit. This unquenchable cooperate greed is why there needes to be regulation. In an ideal world this would not be the case, but as it is now there is no other real option other then the bureaucracy of the Government.

Now if we could weed out all the abuses in the system (fraud, waste, corruption) things would be a lot better off. Yet I regret that it is almost impossible given the lure of money and the power of greed and envy.

~ Draken