As Toyota Goes ...

NY Times ^ | 6/17/05 | T Friedman

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

So I have a question: If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person?

It is not that I want any autoworker to lose his or her job, but I certainly would not put on a black tie if the entire management team at G.M. got sacked and was replaced by executives from Toyota. Indeed, I think the only hope for G.M.'s autoworkers, and maybe even our country, is with Toyota. Because let's face it, as Toyota goes, so goes America.

Having Toyota take over General Motors - which based its business strategy on building gas-guzzling cars, including the idiot Hummer, scoffing at hybrid technology and fighting Congressional efforts to impose higher mileage standards on U.S. automakers - would not only be in America's economic interest, it would also be in America's geopolitical interest.

Because Toyota has pioneered the very hybrid engine technology that can help rescue not only our economy from its oil addiction (how about 500 miles per gallon of gasoline?), but also our foreign policy from dependence on Middle Eastern oil autocrats.

Diffusing Toyota's hybrid technology is one of the keys to what I call "geo-green." Geo-greens seek to combine into a single political movement environmentalists who want to reduce fossil fuels that cause climate change, evangelicals who want to protect God's green earth and all his creations, and geo-strategists who want to reduce our dependence on crude oil because it fuels some of the worst regimes in the world.

The Bush team has been M.I.A. on energy since 9/11. Indeed, the utter indifference of the Bush team to developing a geo-green strategy - which would also strengthen the dollar, reduce our trade deficit...

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Hey Waldo, M.I.A. on energy since 9/11.

[BenLurkin]

If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person?

Yes! AND a jerk.

[gcruse]

If Friedman's okay with seeing GM execs out on the street, and I'm okay with seeing UAW goons out on the street, then GM collapsing must not be all that bad.

[MarkL]

The Bush team has been M.I.A. on energy since 9/11

Gee, how long has the energy bill been waiting in the senate now? 4 years, from before September 11, 2001!

The senate refuses to bring up the bill, and it's President Bush's fault.

Gotta love the legacy of Jason Blair!

Mark

[Diddle E. Squat]

For someone who the left likes to from time to time point to as one of its great experts on foreign policy, he sure comes across as an airhead.

[end socialism now]

I'm rooting for GM (and all other carmakers)to toss the unions out on their a$$e$ and go to performance-based pay.

[Phocion]

The Bush team has been M.I.A. on energy since 9/11

Maybe Friedman should have turned on C-SPAN today to see the President at the 16th Annual Energy Efficiency Forum. Or paid attention to the previous 4 years of Bush trying to get the energy bill passed.

It's the Democrats who have been MIA on energy. Do they even have a position other than "drilling in ANWR is bad"?

[B Knotts]

The Bush team has been M.I.A. on energy since 9/11.

This statement proves that this guy has no idea what he's writing about.

[GSlob]

"(how about 500 miles per gallon of gasoline?)"
Well, the greenpisser could pedal 500 miles with 16 pounds of food rations (at 2 pounds a day) and pick his water as it happens along the road. And if he could eat the seasonal vegetation along the way, his fuel economy would increase still further.

[VeniVidiVici]

I'm sure Friedman thinks his Toyota fantasy involves taking over the debt and obligations for the GM worker/retiree health and pension fund, and keeping the unions while doubling worker salary.

hahahahahahaha

[Sgt_Schultze]

...how about 500 miles per gallon of gasoline?

Great! If mandating higher mileage cars is an effective tool, mandate 500 mpg. Problems solved.

[de Buillion]

"So I have a question: If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person? "

Well, if you are, it means you have company- Who, in their right mind, doesn't want to see those stupid, insulting di-tech and goodwrench ads go away? Any corporation that stupid deserves to go belly - up! SOON!

[Texas_Jarhead]

The Hummer made a good deal of money for GM unless I'm misinformed.

[traumer]

THOMAS FRIEDMAN is a smart cookie

[endthematrix]

Tom can get bent.

[staytrue]

If I am rooting for The New York Times to go bankrupt and be bought out by Fox News, does that make me a bad person?

[Tiger Smack]

The senate refuses to bring up the bill, and it's President Bush's fault.

Republicans run the house and senate, Frist is a candy ass

[durasell]

Yes, but it wasn't a practical car for most people.

[endthematrix]

He knows talking points.

[RayChuang88]

Actually, if GM were smart, they would reduce themselves to only these divisions:

1. Chevrolet, which would handle the family car market plus the Corvette.

2. Cadillac, which would handle the luxury car market.

3. GMC Trucks, which would handle the light truck and SUV markets.

4. Isuzu Motors, which would handle light trucks and heavy trucks made in Japan.

5. A combined Opel/Vauxhall operation, which would handle models sold for European (and selected world) markets.

By the way, with interest in more fuel-efficient vehicles in the USA, we may see a number of Opel models make it to the USA. The current Zafira and Meriva models need very little modification to make them US-market compliant, and there is some talk that we may see the Meriva sold in the USA, where the car will be built in Korea by Daewoo Motors (which GM now has major controlling interest in).