While I sit here watching the Dow sink toward 7,000 -- really -- I thought it might be a good time to post an e-mail a small businessman sent to General Motors late last year to protest its request for money to avoid bankruptcy. A reader e-mailed it to me this morning. I checked it out on Snopes.com, and it's real. Here's the actual GM letter that prompted the remarkable response from Gregory J. Knox, which I've posted after the jump:
Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General MotorsDear Employee,
Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis...................
As an employee, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard. Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.
Troy Clarke
President
General Motors North America
Now, here's the blistering response from Knox, who is a supplier to the auto industry. It's a doozy, I tell you what:
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 on to 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 the masses still 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, in 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 nation's 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 four 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 isn't worth $750,000.
People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care and welfare benefits.
That job driving a 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 annual 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 it has, doesn't live beyond its means, 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".
Gregory J Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin , Ohio 45005
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Bravo Rick!!!
Rick:
>>
"It's called a just or living wage. It's a Catholic and Christian concept"
A just wage has nothing to do with owning a detached home, an inground pool, and paying for college. A just wage provides a workingman with sufficient money to support his family in a decent manner so that they have basic food, clothing, shelter, and physical health.
A just wage does not guarantee a walk-in closet full of 30 or 40 or 50 outfits, 20 pairs of shoes, a 25 ft. long pool with a diving board, annual vacations to Cancun, college paid in full, any college education at all for that matter, private school tuition, ownership of a luxury car or SUV, season tickets to the local sports teams, pearls and diamonds for the wife, caviar, champagne, lobster, and filet mignon for dinner, or a 300 sq. ft. house with granite countertops, Viking appliances, and 500 thread count egyptian cotton towels and sheets changed daily by a kind Latina servant.
Did I really just have to write that?
"3. Subsidizes mortgages"
When did usurious 30 year mortgages become a cornerstone of Christian social teaching?
"I just don't want to live in a country where wealth concentrates in the hands of a few John Galts, and leaves everyone who is not hyper-productive in some quantifiable way impoverished."
In other words, all of human history up to around 60 years ago was awash in them most dreadful social sin of income inequity? Every Christian society coming down from the Romans had precisely the social structure you decry as just terrible.
"I don't like the servility and cravenness that infest economies where vast majority of folks are indebted to a handful of rich."
There isn't a modern society around where most people are not deeply in debt to own houses, cars, clothes, etc. to the level people think is now necessary.
Andrew,
Far be it from me to insist that a living wage requires a pool, etc. As I said, my "pool" comment was an allusion to Reagan -- not Catholic social teaching.
But I do think you have a very minimalistic view of a living wage. Thanks for acknowledging we should at least give our cops, firemen and factory workers what we provide convicted felons and terrorists: "basic food, clothing, shelter, and physical health." But I prefer to live in a society that does a bit more.
The Catechism explicitly says a living wage should enable workers to participate in "social, cultural and spiritual" activities. It's hard to do that without paid vacation and time off.
And Rerum Novarum says workers should be able acquire a little wealth through savings. An excellent way to do this is by encouraging and subsidizing the "forced savings" of homeownership.
There isn't a modern society around where most people are not deeply in debt to own houses, cars, clothes, etc. to the level people think is now necessary.
There's nothing wrong with debt per se. Debt incurred to purchase an appreciating asset (eg, a house) or something that will increase your earning power (eg, an education, a car providing transport to a job, etc) can be a powerful tool. I'm glad this tool is widely available.
What is dangerous is when ordinary workers in an economy can never hope to build wealth or achieve financial independence. Again, Rerum Novarum recognizes this danger, and calls for "a more equitable division of goods." (cf 65, 66).
Excuse me, but I can and will tell Mr Knox that he doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says, “That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn’t worth $85,000 a year…”.
My ex-husband has worked at GM for almost 30 years; most recently as a forklift driver. I can assure you that he makes nowhere near $85,000 a year. I would also hasten to point out that his plant, Toledo’s GM Powertrain has been given industry awards for the productivity of their employees. I really take offense when loudmouths like Mr. Knox twist reality to suit their own narrow ideology. It’s too bad that so many people are willing to give them a forum.
I am still astounded at the fact that the government bought out the major car dealers. Obviously they wouldn't let them go under, so lets see how this can better the American way of life and job market opportunities
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