To bail or not to bail

By
Saul Landau                                                                    Read Spanish Version

   
To
bail, or not to bail: that is the question:

               
Whether
‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

               
The
slings and arrows of outrageously low gas mileage,

               
Or
to take measures against a sea of warming vehicles,

               
And
by opposing end them?

               
They
have not born the whips and scorns of time,

               
Auto
conscience does make cowards of us all;

               
And
thus the native hue of resolution

               
Is
sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

               
And
enterprises of great pith and moment

               
With
this regard their currents turn awry,

               
And
lose the name of action.

The
“Heartbeat of America” has suffered a major myocardial
infarction.
In one
year, Chevrolet –as American as apple pie — has slashed 25,000 jobs
and closed a dozen of its U.S. factories. General Motors’ auto
parts manufacturer, Delphi, went into declared bankruptcy — another
14 factories and 25,000 more jobs gone by 2010. Don’t worry,
however, GM’s competitors, Ford and Chrysler, also announced major
bad health news. By 2012, Ford will eliminate at least 55,000 jobs.

The
once haughty CEOs of the auto industry strutted through the Halls of
Congress giving orders. Now they beg, in vain, for bail out money —
although it’s not clear what they would do with it.
Wired.com
reported that GM North America president Troy Clarke emailed 29,000
employees: “Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on
why this support is critical. … This level of economic devastation
far exceeds the $25 billion of government support that our industry
needs to bridge this current period.” (Nov. 12, 2008) Reuters
reported that GM dealers received a letter from GM sales chief, Mark
LaNeve, encouraging them to do something about “the deepest crisis
our industry has ever faced.”

Even
the United Auto Workers Union conceded billions of dollars in
hard-won gains to keep the factories open. They let the companies cut
the retired auto workers’ health benefits. But the workers don’t
accuse the UAW of selling out. They understand that the cars they
made do not compete with Toyota and Honda. The trendy SUVs, Hummers
and other heavy gas drinkers slowly rust away on auto dealers’ lots
— many of which have already shut down. The Big Three’s real gold
mine was the phenomenal growth of sports utility vehicles (SUVs)
during the 1990s, rising from 7 percent of the total car and truck
market at the beginning of the decade to roughly 20 percent by the
end. (Mark Brenner and Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes, www.alternet.org,
Nov. 19, 2008)

The
elite economists and members of the business and chattering classes
wring their hands in despair. The U.S. economy has revolved around
the car for almost a century. Think of the millions of miles of
highways built for it and its big brother, the truck. Think of the
infinite number of parking garages and lots. Think of how each house
has at least a one, if not a three car garage. How will we get to
work, take the kids to school, shop, get away from the house and
family, or — for teenagers — find a place to have sex?

As
Congress debates what to do to save the car industry, few Members
consider the incompatibility of life ruled by the automobile and the
continuation of life itself. Indeed, if China, India, Brazil and
other “developing” countries continue to produce cars, along with
the Western, Japanese and Korean factories, the earth’s climate
will become less hospitable for human beings — even if the techno
geniuses figure out how to use fuels more harmonious with Nature than
gasoline. Think of what the manufacture of cars entail — the amount
of metals, chemicals, plastics and other less than healthy products!
Think of the waste on concrete, steel and other material to build
endless garages and ribbons of highway.

The
car and the city never got along unless one believes rush hour in the
major capitals of the world make cities hot. Then there’s
pollution, stench and frustration, not to mention the amount of
resources cities must spend to meet the needs of the auto. Delphi’s
CEO Steve Miller signaled what was at stake: “I want you to view
what is happening at Delphi as a flash point, a test case, for all
the economic and social trends that are on a collision course in our
country and around the globe.” (Brenner and Slaughter)

Some
of my friends have already converted their cars’ engines to burn
used McDonald’s grease; others await the electric versions run off
power generated by the sun or wind. None of them, however, can
conceive of living without their cars.

How
does one confront the reality of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient
Truth”?
Unless we change our ways, he warned and keeps warning, the
environment cannot sustain our species. Gore’s alerts focus on the
mantra of continuous and unthinking growth.

The
city itself presents a basic challenge. Stare at the skylines of New
York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco or Detroit! Skyscrapers
that require heating and cooling 24/7, 365 days a year — buildings
in which nothing gets produced! Tens of thousand or millions of cars
enter and leave underground or above ground garages each weekday —
for which the drivers
pay do
their vehicles occupy a space. The cars’ occupants often produce
nothing tangible. From their offices, they send out millions of
emails relating to businesses that often produce nothing you can
touch, invoices, statements about stock and bond sales. At lunch
hour, many race to their cars to meet a friend or lover for a meal —
or drive to a motel for a “nooner.” Then, back into the car, back
into the garage and back into the artificially cooled or heated
office to manufacture more data on the computer.

The
late afternoon rush hour often begins before 4 p.m. and endures until
7. Drivers or passengers allow the frustrations of their unproductive
day to simmer or sometimes boil inside of them.

The
car has also become an instrument used by temporarily psychotic
drivers: road rage. Others have developed a highly unnatural
relationship between themselves and their mobile pieces of metal and
plastic — some give them pet names! Think of the car as an
instrument people use to kill each other or themselves. Or, think of
the car as the weirdest way ever invented to transport people. Vast
social entities — cities like Los Angeles — virtually require
inhabitants to own at least
one
such vehicle.

Don’t
think of the manufacturing process in which over nearly a century
workers have sacrificed their physical and mental health over smoky,
noisy, fast moving assembly lines. How can one conceive of life
without the ubiquitous car? Indeed, even more remote: what will we do
with the cities replete with non-productive skyscrapers and garages?
Fanatic “deep ecologists” have even hinted at a Khmer
Rouge (of Cambodia during the late 1970s) solution — without the
killing fields — and call for the gradual extinction of cities and
other technology deemed destructive to Nature.

What
does President Obama think? He will confront demands to save, at any
cost, the auto industry and the millions of jobs connected to it. He
might start his era of change by reversing the old slogan: “What’s
bad for GM is good for America — and the rest of the world.”

Then,
he might think of constructing public transportation — jobs for
millions — in a scientific and efficient manner, much the same way
he ran his presidential campaign.

Saul
Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow, author of A
BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD (Counterpunch
A/K) whose more than 40 films are available on DVD
from
http://roundworldproductions.com/Site/Films_by_Saul_Landau_on_DVD.html.