13 November 2008

Supply and Demand: Is GM really indispensable?

"There's no magical difference between the banks and the auto industry; they're both indispensable" (Premier McGuinty, in Banks get help, but will GM? 13 Nov 2008).

What an odd comment! Let GM concentrate on the maintenance of older cars during these harsh economic times. Maybe they could try and ensure that parts are available, and consumer advice on DIY vehicle improvement. That would be far more valuable a contribution, in my view, than the endless production of new vehicles for consumers who cannot, at this time, afford them, at least some of whom probably feel the necessity of keepng up with the Joneses.

Let's stop this kind of one upmanship, and give GM workers the space to find other ways of contributing to society from their wealth of knowledge, not the least of which will be the probably new discovery to many of them that such loss of identity, income, and security can happen to anyone.

Read the comments following the Toronto Star article if you want to see just how many ordinary citizens oppose the bailing out of GM. And feel free to read my essay, Beyond Workaday Worlds.


Banks get help, but will GM?
By Richard Brennan in Ottawa, Ann Perry in Toronto
Toronto Star
Nov 13, 2008
http://www.thestar.com/article/536036

Beyond Workaday Worlds: Aging, Identity, and the Life Cycle
By Sue McPherson
S A McPherson website
2005
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/EssaysandWriting/BeyondWorkadayWorldsSMcPherson.doc



Links updated Apr 24, 2012

No comments: