The Detroit Lions went 0-16 this year, while the auto makers are going 0-3. Yes, it has been a rough year in Motown.
There is an opinion piece that ran in the NY Times last month by Thomas L Friedman entitled “While Detroit Sleeps”. Now no one wants to see the auto industry fail, but he poses the question that we may be spending good money after bad. You get that feeling of losing in Vegas and then trying to make it back on the next spin of the wheel or deal of the cards. He equates investing in our current auto makers to putting money into other doomed technologies:
| Typewriter | —> | PC’s |
| Compact Discs | —> | iPod |
| Mail Order Catalogs | —> | eBay |
| Book Stores | —> | Amazon |
In order for the Big 3 to be a good investment, they need to change their ways. Since gas prices have fallen so sharply, there is a tendency to delay research on gasoline alternatives. Unfortunately, we know prices are going to rise again and we need to be better prepared next time oil goes over $100 a barrel.
In a story on Huffington Post called “Is There An Option More Promising Than The Plug-In Electric Vehicle?”, Patrick Takahashi discusses our future options. He argues for the use of wind and solar energy to charge battery-powered cars. This will take many years, but we have to make this a priority now.
So what should we do? Chase our loses while doubling down on a bad hand or quit gambling with foreign oil and make sound investments in gasoline alternatives? The Detroit Lions fired their GM and coach to change direction from their losing ways. Sounds like a good strategy that could also be applied to our auto industry.
Sunday, 11. January 2009
The high cost of fuel this past year did serious damage to our economy and society. After a brief reprieve gas prices are inching back up again. Our nation should not allow other nations to have such power over us and our economy . We have so much available to us in the way of technology and free sources of energy. WE seriously need to get on with becoming an energy independent nation. We are spending billions upon billions in bail out dollars. Why not spend some of those billions in getting alternative energy projects set up. We could create clean cheap energy, millions of badly needed new green jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil all in one fell swoop. I just read an eye opening book by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to drive and charge an electric car.If all gasoline cars, trucks, and SUV’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. Why don’t we use some of the billions in bail out money to bail us out of our dependence on foreign oil? This past year the high cost of fuel so seriously damaged our economy and society that the ripple effects will be felt for years to come. http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com