Think About It. General Bullmoose. Fifty years ago The Wall Street Journal noted that antitrust lawyers had pursued an investigation culminating during the Kennedy administration with a “General Motors Task Force” designed to break up the power and reach of the manufacturing giant deemed “too big to live”.
Ten years earlier, a previous CEO of GM had told a Senate committee that ” for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa”. Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner quickly found a greedy corporate foil whose favorite expression was “What’s good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA”.
Fast forward to the economic dip of 2009 when the wisdom of Washington was that GM and others were “too big to fail”. Five more years and our chosen few had risked $80 billion, gambling that their business acumen is accurate in providing another bailout for the auto industry. This government intrusion into the automobile race for success occasioned the second trip to the trough for Chrysler. You may recall their previous fed financing aid in 1979. Today, with callbacks exceeding sales, will third time be as charming as the first two? Will the US government continue to play a bigger and bigger role in the business of business?
Past contributions to car companies may be old news, but as you notice, automobile builders are facing unimaginable demands to take back or significantly alter products they have delivered in the last few years. At question is when and/or how often will the US government decide to be the primary stakeholder in a driving force of the nation’s economy as a whole?
Washington wisdom was that a failing GM would be an irretrievable loss of jobs to an unacceptable number of Americans. I couldn’t help but imagine that our car-crazed country would continue wanting new transportation.
Do you believe in the law, the one about supply and demand? Then you might conclude that some company not needing federal aid (Ford maybe?) would have gladly step forward, occupy available facilities, hire unemployed but experienced workers and make sure you could drive in the style to which you would like to become accustomed.
Hopefully we will arrive at an equilibrium of political philosophies, a rebirth of the responsibilities of citizens, more authority remaining in the States while limiting control of our private, religious and business lives. Admittedly, the conversation began early in our nation’s history. But, my understanding was that the founders intended to limit the power of a too oppressive federal government.
Maybe it’s possible that wise and just representatives might find the wisdom and strength to return to the original plan. Then perhaps it would be clear that it is just not true that what’s good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA or that what’s good for the USA is good for General Bullmoose. Think About It.