Even though this particular MacWorld keynote was something of a bust (or not), as a loyal vassal of Lord Steve, I immediately downloaded my new iPhone firmware and spent yesterday evening adding icons so I could instantly access lists of wines I’d never drink and such while keeping an eye on the usual cable news campaign blather, the candidates and their porte paroles outstripping each other in Playing the Panderus (hey, there’s an idea for an iPhone game for the next update.)
Speaking of which, I think the most disgraceful example of pandering so far was Romney going up to Michigan and promising to bring back the glory days of the auto industry (via subsidies?). Hey, gang, it’s 1957 again. Roll out the Chevy Impala. Oh, les beaux jours.
If there’s anything more disgraceful than Romney, it’s the Michigan voters who believed his nonsense (and there were evidently a lot of them). The one thing you can say for McCain is he told them some of the truth . The old days are not coming back to the Michigan auto industry no way, no how… unless they nuke Toyota (as some wag said).
McCain, however, was too gentlemanly to tell the full truth about the Michigan auto moguls – they are too square. In the modern world, Detroit … is … out… of …. it. (I apologize to all Detroiters reading this, but you do have a great basketball team. And, yes, I could be wrong, assuming they get their act together with the Chevy Volt, but that’s the last chance.)
Meanwhile, I say move the auto industry to the Silicon Valley. As you will see in my article in Pajamas for Thursday, I think Hollywood is already headed there. That, more than anything, may be the outgrowth of the current strike.
Detroit should head for Mountain View as well. Time for the Apple Car. (Hey, we’ve already had Apple Care.). What do we call it? The MacZoom?
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7 Comments
1. chuck:Sure… send your car back to Apple whenever you need a new battery or a change of tires. Apple products tend to be dead ends, which is why I finally gave them up. Maybe some other high tech company could do the trick, but real estate in Mountain View is a bit high for the production facilities needed for a “real” industry. I would go where the other car companies are going, the South. I suppose you could leave some of the design in Silicon Valley
Jan 16, 2008 - 11:09 pm 2. Dan:Ha! If Apple made automobiles the cheapest one would be $40,000.
Rather than Apple, the future of autos – and it will not be a far future for gasoline powered vehicles given that the ICE is doomed by peak oil – is in the Tata Nano. Ok, so their current car cannot meet California emission or safety standards. However, I wonder how cheaply one could build a car in India that would meet those standards? $10,000 perhaps?
Jan 17, 2008 - 1:48 am 3. Lem:Instead of nuking Toyota, Romney promised to bring back the Ford Nucleon.
That will show those suicide bombers.
We will force them to buy American
Jan 17, 2008 - 8:45 am 4. Jamie Irons:Roger,
Actually, I have become convinced (without of course being anything like an expert in this field) that Bob Zubrin’s ideas might give us a way of getting Detroit going again, and impoverishing the Saudis at the same time (talk about a twofer!)…
Jamie Irons
Jan 17, 2008 - 9:27 am 5. Pygmy Twylyte:Yes, design ‘em in Mountain View and build them in Oakland. We’ve got tons of “brownfield” space for industry. It would be much better than having lobbying the Wayans Brothers to build a studio/amusement park at the Oakland Army base or becoming a center for “Green” business. Whatever that means.
Oh, bring your kevlar though…
Jan 17, 2008 - 9:33 am 6. MarkD:There is something disconcerting about American voters and workers endorsing politicians who have driven manufacturing jobs away through stricter environmental and financial regulations, only to complain that these policies have worked as designed.
Ignoring wages, do you think it is easier to manufacture in China or the US? Put another way, if the playing field were reasonably level, who would elect to deal with foreign bureaucracy, language barriers, different cultures, shipping costs, and two sets of governments?
There is a price to be paid for the choices we’ve made, and we’re paying it. That pristine ANWR wilderness is paid for at the gas pump. The UAW bought those fancy benefits and high wages with the jobs the next generation didn’t get. Conversely, there is more choice in cars and just about any good you could name, and cleaner air and water than when I was a kid.
The old days are not coming back. But we chose what we got when we listened to the promises. When they tell you they are going to do something and it won’t cost you anything, run. We always pay.
Jan 17, 2008 - 9:41 am 7. Steven E. Ehrbar:Auto work in the United States is perfectly competitive ó when done in non-union plants. Which is why the Japanese and Germans keep opening plants here, but with care to stay far away from Michigan, a UAW stronghold. And which is why America’s non-union parts suppliers are eating the lunch of Big Three spinoffs Delphi and Visteon.
The Big Three can’t take advantage of that, because the UAW has enough power over their existing plants to force the UAW organization of any new ones.
However, the Federal Government has the power to break the UAW, which means the Federal Government has the power to make auto work in Michigan competitive with auto work in Kentucky, South Carolina, etc. Which means it’s perfectly possible to bring back the glory days (or at least have a modest revival) of the auto industry in Michigan ó if the political battle to destroy the UAW were fought and won.
Jan 17, 2008 - 12:09 pm