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Why not just post the letter?
Mod, if this is not allowed, remove my post.

From Gregory Knox,

In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout
for the United States automakers please consider the following, and
please also pass this onto Troy Clark, the president of General Motors
North America for me.

You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has
bred like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades,
and whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new
“messiah” to wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away,
while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep “living
the dream”…

The dream is over!

The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management
myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time
that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid,
arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded “laborers” without
paying the price for these atrocities…and that still the masses will
line up to buy our products

Don’t tell me I’m wrong. Don’t accuse me of not knowing of what I
speak. I have called on Ford,GM ,Chrysler,TRW,Delphi,Kelsey Hayes,
American Axle and countless other automotive OEM’s and Tier ones for 3
decades now throughout the Midwest and what I’ve seen over the years
in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Mr Clark, the president of General Motors, states:

There is widespread sentiment in this country, our government and
especially in the media that the current crisis is completely the
result of bad management. It is not…

You’re right – it’s not JUST management…how about the electricians
who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people
wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass…so they can come
in on the weekend and make double and triple time…for a job they
easily could have done within their normal 40 hour week

How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of
scare tactics…for putting out too many parts on a shift…and for being
too productive (mustn’t expose the lazy bums who have been getting
overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?)
Do you really not know about this stuff?!?

How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke’s sad plea:

over the last few years …we have closed the quality and efficiency
gaps with our competitors.

What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!?

Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency
between us and them?

The K car vs. the Accord?

The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?

Do I need to go on?

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the
United States auto industry for decades.

Time to pay for your sins, Detroit.

I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist,
Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given
the banks a penny of “bailout money”. Yes, he said, this would cause
short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy
Clark would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day…
and something else would happen…where there had been greedy and sloppy
banks new efficient ones would pop up…that is how a free market system
works…it does work…if we would let it work…

But for some reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is
right and that capitalism doesn’t work – that we need the government
to step in and “save us”…save us, hell – we’re nationalizing…and
unfortunately too many of this once fine nations citizens don’t even
have a clue that this is what’s really happening…but they sure can
tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams…yeah – THAT’S
important…

Does it occur to ANYONE that the “competition” has been producing
vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?...

How can that be???

Let’s see…

Fuel efficient…

Listening to customers…

Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul…

Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming
4 decades ago

Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma
plans…

Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like “the
enemy”…

Efficient front and back offices…

Non union environment…

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn’t be telling anyone
anything they really don’t already know in their hearts

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of
wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten
yourself into – my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis,
as I did at their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one
of their greatest gifts, by the way) – I make them stand on their own
two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work them
through.

Radical concept, huh…

Am I there for them in the wings? Of course – but only until such
time as they need to be fully on their own as adults

I don’t want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly
are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting
and government.

Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.

Bad news people – it’s coming whether we like it or not

The newly elected Messiah really doesn’t have a magic wand big enough
to “make it all go away” I laughed as I heard Obama “reeling it back
in” almost immediately after the vote count was tallied…”we might not
do it in a year…or in four…” where was that kind of talk when he was
RUNNING for the office

Stop trying to put off the inevitable …

That house in Florida really isn’t worth $750,000…

People who jump across a border really don’t deserve free health care
benefits…

That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn’t worth
$85,000 a year…

We really shouldn’t allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with
products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their
currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the
face of the globe…

That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really
shouldn’t be living in that $485,000 home…

Let the market correct itself people – it will. Yes it will be
painful, but it’s gonna be painful either way, and the bright side of
my proposal is that on the other side of it is a nation that
appreciates what is has…and doesn’t live beyond its means…and gets
back to basics…and redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest
nation in the history of the world…and probably turns back to God.

Sorry – don’t cut my head off, I’m just the messenger sharing with
you the “bad news”