ComplainerMan

It’s frustrating listening to all of the utter garbage that spews out of people’s mouth regarding the automotive industry in the United States. Don’t tell me that cars made in America are just as good as those made in Japan. If you haven’t owned an American car and a Japanese car (in which case there will be no question in your mind which is better) then just look at the resale value.

Japanese cars aren’t better quality and value because the Japanese are a better people than Americans. They are better because the Japanese manufacturing process is better. Their manufacturing process is better because their economic system allows it to be. It doesn’t insist on maximizing profits for the shareholders RIGHT NOW like the American system does.

I heard Mayor Gavin Newsome on Larry King spouting some more garbage, that may make sense if you know absolutely nothing about automobile manufacturing. He said that Japanese and other foreign automakers made better bets than did the U.S. in the kind of automobiles they manufactured over the past few years. The U.S. bet that big gas guzzling SUVs would be the way to go, while other countries’ manufactures focused on smaller, more energy efficient cars. BULLCRAP!!! American automakers did not bet on anything. They geared their manufacturing towards SUVs because George W. Bush and his cronies gave huge tax breaks for businesses to purchase these gas guzzling monstrosities. Do you think the oil companies benefited from this? They did too. Short term profit is the overriding motive. Greed is God.

Until we fix our out-of-control brand of cronie capitalism, we aren’t going to be able to make a car as good as they can in Japan. Until the shareholders in this country can tolerate short term cost in acheiving long term benefits, such as are necessary in high quality manufacturing processes (ever heard of TQM, Demming, or continuous improvement?) then the US will continue to be second rate. As long as we think that management is divorced from manufacturing, and hiring some MBA as a manager, who doesn’t know his ass from an allen wrench, US cars will suck. That is if there are any cars manufactured in the US in years to come.