Armchair Auto Executive

So, once again, there's talk about the American auto manufacturing business being in dire straits, and needing a big cash injection from Dr. Government to survive. After all, if they were willing to give Wall Street $700 billion, why not throwing a few measly billion at GM, Chrysler, and Ford?

I'm going to avoid the political socialism nightmare that I think this whole situation is devolving into, and instead postulate on what I think I'd like to see happen here.

Before I do that, though, I think it's necessary to point out that, for the most part, I think I know quite a bit more about the auto manufacturing business than I knew about the Wall Street stuff. Frankly, I felt that I didn't know enough about the ins and outs of that world to really make an informed snap decision, and the media coverage didn't really shed enough light on things for my liking. But I am more familiar with the car guys and their world.

To me, the whole problem with the American guys can be summed up in one word: unions. Or, hey, even more simply--it can be summed up in three letters: UAW. If the government ends up writing a big twelve-figure check to fix everything at GM, I would really like to see it happen only with the stipulation that the UAW is forevermore banished forthwith. There are lots of sectors of the auto business that are doing well--even here in America. Even in manufacturing! Specifically, though, it's all the foreign guys, who have non-union plants, mostly in the south. BMW, Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes, Nissan, and Toyota all have plants down here, and they're all non-union (at least I am pretty sure they are; let's keep this thing unencumbered by messy research and just assume I'm right).

There have been lots of things written about the anchor the UAW is around the necks of the Big Three. I saw something recently that said union costs, including health insurance premiums, inefficiencies, corruption, and pensions, run to close to $8000 for every single vehicle GM produces. Today, I saw an article (can't find it now, though) where some high-up UAW clown states that he'd rather surf GM into the ground a la Slim Pickens' character riding the nuke in Dr. Strangelove than make any sort of concession to the EEeee-vil GM management.

Look, I've seen all of the Big Three try to compete the last few years. The management at all three firms has been pretty good about raising quality levels, trying to develop new hybrid and other fuel efficiency technology, and generally, y'know, trying to stay alive. But how can they manage to stay alive with a workforce that would rather kill the golden goose than make cutbacks to survive?

Sorry, unions, your time is up. And, yes, I believe they have, at one time or another, had a valid reason for existence. But, hey, if you don't like your job, or how you're treated, you have other options. You can pick up and move somewhere else! Yes, it's true! I have!

8 Things

The 8 Things Tag...

8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. The Office
2. Top Gear
3. Lost
4. Gilmore Girls (just started to Netflix)
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
6. Firefly
7. Freaks and Geeks
8. Peep Show

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. The Melting Pot
2. Solstice
3. Miyo's
4. San Jose
5. Gervais and Devine
6. Red Robin
7. Five Guys
8. Bombay House (but it is so far away)

8 Things that happened today
1. Woke up on an island
2. Conducted an interview with two elderly black gentleman
3. Drove around said island a lot
4. Sat in a car for hours to get home
5. Got a headache
6. Watched Cheers
7. Surfed the internet
8. Typed this blog

8 things that I look forward to:
1. Finishing my thesis
2. Finishing grad school
3. Getting accepted to PhD program (Crossing fingers)
4. Finishing doctorate
5. Having children (someday)
6. Coming home to T after traveling
7. Getting a job in my field
8. Traveling to the Dubai, European continent, India, Australia, South America and Asia someday

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A house in a more kid friendly neighborhood with a better yard/parks
2. Time to take belly dancing classes
3. An acceptance letter to PhD program
4. A publishable article
5. A super awesome digital camera (Nikon D38 if you would like to get one for me)
6. To see my family more often
7. Children
8. Social justice

If you are reading this, then consider yourself tagged. :) And you can do it in the comments without registering if you would like.

Poor dog

My mom's poor little dog Malcolm had to be put down last night. He was around 12 years old and his health had been failing for quite some time. After a couple of horrible days as all his systems shut down, they took him to the after-hours, emergency vet service and had him put out of his misery.

Sorry, Mom and Caitie. I know he had a happy life, right up to the end, and that's the greatest gift you can give a pet. At least he's no longer in pain.

The "Veronica Mars" post

We just this morning finished watching the last two episodes of Veronica Mars, the short-lived show about the teenage girl who moonlights as a P.I. and solves crimes. (In case you've never heard of it, it's one of these cult shows with a dedicated fanbase that complains about its unjust demise at the hands of the television network heads.)

Anyway, I see that the show aired for two seasons on one network before it spent its last year on the CW, whatever that is. Actually, I know what it is, it's the network that apparently gets fussy if there's even a single show in its lineup that isn't about pretty young people and their uninteresting love lives. Seriously, the show was great in its first two seasons, but the CW morans really tried hard to make it boring and dumb when it moved to their network.

Okay, I liked the fact that they changed the one-big-mystery-per-season thing for that last year. She had a couple of big mysteries during that last year, and that allowed for a little more excitement during the year, as well as making the show appear a little less like a big tribute to Buffy (not a bad thing). But every single episode during that last season had at least one scene where we were "treated" to her and Logan whining about their relationship. Gaaahhh, enough already.

The last disc of the set has a look at what they wanted to do in the event that the series was renewed for a 4th season: Veronica at the FBI. Hey, that has potential. I guess the network clods passed because they wouldn't be able to shoehorn a bunch of crap about pretty-boy college students in there.

It's too bad, too, because the show was really excellent without the network meddling in it. Even the third season wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as the first two were. I guess you can always depend on the suits to fix what ain't broke.