Michael Moore’s Curious Economics

At the Huffington Post, Michael Moore writes:

Of course, the auto magnates used be the Masters who ruled the world. They were the pulsating hub that all other industries — steel, oil, cement contractors — served. Fifty-five years ago, the president of GM sat on that same Capitol Hill and bluntly told Congress, what’s good for General Motors is good for the country. Because, you see, in their minds, GM WAS the country.

This is the myth that refuses to die. Charles Wilson was the head of General Motors in the 1950s when President Eisenhower selected him to be the Secretary of Defense. During his confirmation hearings, Wilson was asked if he could make a decision against of the interest of General Motors. He said he could but he could think of such a situation “because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”
Ever since, this humble statement of dedication to public service has been twisted into sounding like some statement of Nietzschean corporatism. Moore even has to add “bluntly” to his description.
So what’s Mike’s plan. Nationalize the car companies. I’m serious; he wants the government to buy all the outstanding stock, but he’s quick to add “None of us want government officials running a car company, but there are some very smart transportation geniuses who could be hired to do this.”
I’m a little lost of the logic here. Does he think the problem is simply poor management? If so, why is it dragging down all of the companies at once? His complaint is that the companies’ restructuring plan involves cutting jobs. Although that seems perfectly obvious to me, Moore finds it idiotic.
His plan is took nationalize the companies, turn them over to “very smart transportation geniuses,” force them to build environmentally friend cars and not lay anyone off.
Though I do agree with one part of Moore’s take: “Let me just state the obvious: Every single dollar Congress gives these three companies will be flushed right down the toilet.”

Posted by on December 4th, 2008 at 12:34 pm


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