End of a Seduction

The American auto industry has finally arrived at the end result of its long folly. It forgot that its real business was manufacturing transportation.

When the first autos were made in the U.S. they were designed to replace the horse as a means of moving people and goods. Those early cars were spartan, utitilitarian, cheap to produce and cheap to fuel. They were used by farmers to reach the town, and by people to move between dispersed towns. The roads they were on were primitive so speed and power were secondary considerations. The auto companies flourished without foreign competition.

With the growth of the national highway and road system came suburban development. The auto became the most important means of transport. The emphasis in manufacture shifted to more power and speed and a more comfortable ride. With the postwar improvement in the economy, auto marketing emphasized image. Cars became larger, heavier, more powerful, glitzy, and hungrier for fuel. Autos were marketed as ego massages, catering to the desire to exhibit one's wealth and power. Transportation was an after thought. Obsolescence was built in using styling and limited durability.

Without foreign competition the auto companies became fat and complacent. They agreed to labor contracts which made the auto workers royalty among the middle class. Nowhere in the history of the industry did management contemplate the realities that natural resources and petroleum are finite. None gave a thought to the impact of huge numbers of oversized cars on the planet we live on. And the prospect of foreign competition seemed too remote to be a threat.

Reality has caught up with the industry in a catastrophic manner. To keep the industry on life support by government loans, without requiring it to get back to its basic purpose of making economical, efficient, fuel stingy transportation, is equivalent to restarting a dead heart with a defribrillater. The patient will require that procedure time and again until finally expiring.