Detroit's Big 3 and National Security
In World War II, the auto industry practically shut down to build tanks and jeeps and etc. So if the Big 3 disappear, where will we find the resources to defend ourselves should China decide they want to come over and collect on our debt?
The problem we have created is related to poor risk management. With so few companies left in the US making cars, we lose three we lose them all. Same is going to happen with banks. It pretty much just did, but after the dust clears we will have fewer banks, even larger then before the collapse. So again, we lose a few, we lose them all. Credit cards? MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. We lose them, we lose them all. Airlines? How many are left? What if we lost them.
To the hyper-rich, it matters not where those companies are. They have their money in all currencies with gold and precious stones as well. On a personal level, none of these CEOs are going to lose their positions in the financial hierarchies of the world because of how they no longer see themselves as Americans, but as citizens of the world. Too bad they forgot to realize how their comforts are products of a wealthy society, not the society of the wealthy.
The demise of the Big Three auto companies is unlikely to have much impact on our ability to produce military vehicles. The specialized and automated assembly lines and parts manufacturing for SUVs to compacts would not be at all easy to convert to military production. In fact, one of the Big Three's problems is that their plants convert to small car production less easily than the imports, especially Honda's.
Military vehicles could be manufactured by companies that make heavy trucks, farm implements, or mining and construction equipment.
For tanks, wouldn't Caterpillar be a better choice than GM?
November 20, 2008 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who do you think makes all our current hardware for the military. I'll give you a guess, it isn't any of the Detroit 3. For example; AM General makes the military Hummer. General Dynamics makes the M1 abrams tank.
As Merrill posted above heavy equipment manufacturers are the ones that produce the equipment the military needs most.
Really if you think about it the quality of the products coming out of the big three might be exactly why the military doesn't use them. A restructuring might be in the best interests of national security! At least then they might be able to make something the US military could use.
November 20, 2008 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Times they have changed. Good points. Thanks.
November 20, 2008 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink