US hubris

The article I choose to right on is in the Business Day section of the New York Times. It’s title is “At G.M’s Helm Or Going Under.” The article Starts by explaining the hardship that G.M has fallen under. It’s unit sales are at their lowest point since 1992, when G.M’s now president stepped in and turned the company around, and its market share has been in steady decline and does not look to be turning around anytime in the future without intervention. The question is, what will the intervention be? Some are placing the blame on the President of G.M, Mr. Wagoner. Saying that he should have taken bigger risks and paid more attention to the lure of environmental friendly automobiles before the competition capitalized on the need. They also criticize his downfall in giving in to the Auto Workers Union and actually paying its employees to not come to work. They are shelling out money to workers that are not working. Toyota has made a choice to not have a Workers Union. They work under the strategy of, you come to work and take care of us and we’ll take care of you. But G.M is paying so much for it’s workers that it’s prices must stay high enough to support the labor. Toyota has shops that are flexible and can make many models of their cars, G.M only has 8 out of 23 shops that are flexible.
The issue now is, will a new president really save the company or is it just too late? The closing of G.M will effect more than we all know. It seems that its just one subsidiary of a company but when we think of how many small companies are supported by the work they receive from G.M and how many people are then employed by G.M adversely, it adds up quickly. It will effect us all. The government bailed out Chevrolet years ago when they neared bankruptcy, will they do it again?
They political issue at hand is where we as an American company got so overconfident and lost sight of quality and pride. We then allowed foreign cars into the US and they saw a need and filled it. Should we have never allowed foreign cars in or should we have stepped up to the plate and taken a closer look at the quality of our work. Should we also have never allowed for a labor union for auto workers, allowing for cost of cars to stay low? There are many issues at hand and I believe that it all boils down to the hubris of our culture. Instead of investing in environmental cars to save G.M, Mr.Wagoner bought Hummer. We are Americans who want bigger and stronger and this is what in turn, has made us weak.

-Amy Hubbard