Why the auto industry’s plight is your fault

There’s a lot of talk, in Thomas Freidman’s columns and elsewhere, about how the U.S. auto industry deserves its current plight. I have some sympathy for this view, since I do believe GM and Ford have largely failed to innovate, fought hard against gas taxes or mileage standards, and generally managed their brands into the ...

There's a lot of talk, in Thomas Freidman's columns and elsewhere, about how the U.S. auto industry deserves its current plight. I have some sympathy for this view, since I do believe GM and Ford have largely failed to innovate, fought hard against gas taxes or mileage standards, and generally managed their brands into the ground.

There’s a lot of talk, in Thomas Freidman’s columns and elsewhere, about how the U.S. auto industry deserves its current plight. I have some sympathy for this view, since I do believe GM and Ford have largely failed to innovate, fought hard against gas taxes or mileage standards, and generally managed their brands into the ground.

However, a couple points to consider:

  • The industry was in trouble before, but it’s the drying up of consumer demand due to the financial crisis that is threatening to destroy it at present. Even the innovative Toyota is feeling the pain right now.
  • Who bought all those "gas-guzzling S.U.V.s and trucks" Friedman is ranting about? Martians?
  • I must have missed the groundswell of grassroots activism in favor of the higher taxes that would have put a floor under the price of gasoline and made for a stable environment that could make technologies like plug-in hybrids viable even when market prices for crude oil collapse.

As oilman T. Boone Pickens put it this morning on Meet the Press, "If you want to blame somebody for it… all of us in America used the oil. The reason we did? The gasoline was cheap." Watch him here:

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