A disclaimer first - I'm a lifelong Michigan/Detroit area Democrat with something of a vested interest in the sustainability of the domestic automotive business. In some respects, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on this topic.
My reasons after the fold...
I understand why there is a fair amount of resistance here to the idea of the federal government pitching in with our tax dollars to prop-up General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford.
I'll start with the all too familiar assertions that the domestic auto companies focused on a strategy of building (for entirely too long a time) the wrong types of vehicles to meet a changing globally competitive environment. For our purposes, this is an entirely valid assertion. As a result, the domestics currently find themselves quite a bit behind the market curve, trying to catch up with the likes of Honda and Toyota and others who have focused a great deal of energy and resources on producing the well-engineered, high-quality, and fuel-efficent cars that we will need now and in the future to help us attack climate change and dependence on foreign oil.
This was not only a failure of imagination on the part of executive leadership, but intransigence on the part of our locally elected representatives when it came to supporting the adoption progressive energy policies as they apply to the domestic auto industry.
Even today, Bob Lutz still does not take the threat of human-influenced global warming seriously although he is leading the charge to production on behalf of the Chevrolet Volt, which promises to signal a sea-change in the automotive engineering world in regards to the vehicle development priorities here in Detroit. It's a hopeful first step, and there are many other product developments coming to light that will further signal a change in market focus as the big three work to rediscover how they can both make money on smaller vehicles and excite the buying public's imagination with relevant design, fuel efficiency, reliability, and quality.
On behalf of my neighbors in the auto biz and myself, we recognize that all of this and more has to be done in order to gain your respect and enthusiasm for our products. Many of you have never owned a Ford, GM, or Chrysler product in your lifetime and although I've never owned anything but domestic autos, I understand why you've made your decision to buy elsewhere.
I started out in the industry not too long after compiling a very mediocre high-school achievement record and being rewarded with a "mercy diploma", as Pat Metheny calls it. I then shuffled about for a couple of years during the recession of 1979-1982, doing some odd jobs and taking a few community college classes.
Nothing really stuck with me until I happened to come across a "Help Wanted" sign in front of one of the many tool and die shops that used to exist here in the Detroit area twenty-plus years ago. Although I knew nothing about toolmaking, manufacturing, engineering, or automotive design, I was fortunate enough that I was hired to apprentice and that I actually learned to thrive in that environment in spite of the fact that a long-haired college kid was not what the journeyman I worked with regarded as their idea of an apprentice.
But I stuck with it, managed to make a good enough living within a couple of years to afford a starter house, a new car, and continue to pay for my engineering education at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Not too long after that, I really became iterested in the Information Technology industry and went to work for an emerging technology company in the late 1980's that was (and still is) based in Silicon Valley, while remaining based here in Detroit, selling to the automotive industry. That's where I've been ever since although my territory has expanded to a more global scale, it still includes the autos.
When I look back on where I've come from and the auto industry has gone, I think that my story is not uncommon. The auto industry has always held out the promise of a path to a middle class existence. Plenty of people I know where able to either advance their education themselves or send their children to college because of the living they were able to make employed by the auto industry. The neighborhood that I grew up in while living in Detroit was entirely diverse, Greek, Italian, Polish, African-American, white - we attended the same schools, played on the same little league teams, dated and married each other, raised our families together. We were successfully demonstrating that heterogeneous communities and an improving standard of living can go hand-in-hand without ever realizing it.
I don't need to get more sentimental here and talk about how Detroit (the Arsenal of Democracy) pulled up it's boots and retooled to help win the second world war, or how the beautifully original and classic music of Motown emerged from the blue-collar workforce that migrated north after the war, drawn by the promise of a higher standard of living and a labor-friendly working environment. I also don't need to talk about how Martin Luther King first gave his "Dream" speech here in 1963 because he recognized that this city would embrace his vision, or about the time that I actually met Rosa Parks (who also moved to Detroit years ago)in 1994, while I was doing some computer-skills teaching in the city to students at Focus:HOPE. Every community has their story, and we've all contributed.
What I really want to say is that the face of the automotive industry isn't just the executive management at the big three, it's millions of individual stories about people here who wake up everyday, go their jobs, and really want to do the right thing for our families, our industry, our city, our nation, and our world. We are compassionate people with a reputation and a history for working hard and supporting progressive causes. We hold out great hope that if we elect right kind of leadership in Washington (we're amongst the bluest of blue states, don't forget) that we can get the help we need so that our industry can compete not just for a few points of proift margin, but for a sustainable future for all of us.
That's what I hope that you will think about when you write your congressperson about this issue. Thanks.