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Friday, January 27, 2006
Be still my heart!
Thomas Friedman writes W's state of the union speech for him:
Hell, just that last part alone would make the speech a success in my book. Of course none of it's going to happen. But still, it's nice to think of a trainload of Hummers being crushed into cubes. Now the drivers would still be in them, right?Transportation accounts for most of our oil consumption. And many Americans have purchased big cars and S.U.V.'s, expecting gasoline to remain cheap. That is no longer the case. Therefore, I propose creating a government agency that will buy up any gas-guzzling car or truck in America at the original new or used price, and crush it. This national buy-back program will be financed by a $2-a-gallon gasoline tax that will be phased in by 10 cents a month beginning in 2008 — so people know what is coming and start buying fuel-efficient cars right now.
By removing so many gas guzzlers, we will quickly reduce our oil consumption and create a huge demand for new energy-efficient cars from Detroit, which will rescue our auto industry. We have to do something drastic. The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company is worth more today than General Motors! But by sharply raising the gasoline tax, we'll also make sure that Detroit shifts its fleet to energy-saving plug-in hybrids and hydrogen- and ethanol-fueled vehicles, which will force Detroit to out-innovate Toyota. And by generating so much income from a gasoline tax, we will be able to give gas-tax rebates to lower-income folks and have plenty left over to pay for new investment in education and scientific research.
Impossible? Read my lips: Nothing is impossible when Americans put their hearts and minds to it.
One last thing: I have accepted the resignation of Vice President Dick Cheney, who felt he could not be a salesman for the Energy Freedom Act. I am nominating Jeffrey Immelt — the C.E.O. of General Electric, who has focused G.E.'s innovation around "eco-imagination" — as Mr. Cheney's replacement.
3 Comments:
force Detroit to out-innovate Toyota
Heh. Good one.
By 
Joseph Thvedt, at
11:44 PM
I wish I understood the car industry better. Do American car companies suffer from bad leadership? How can all 3 major domestic auto manufacturers suffer from the same SUV-dementia at the same time? (Group think is one answer; a common commitment to being cautious is another.) Or are American manufacturers forced to sell $15,000 cars for $20,000 because of higher health care costs?
It's largely American consumers that are suffering SUV-dementia. What the big three suffer from is current- and next-quarter earnings myopia, and for about the last decade, monster SUVs were the easy road to a fatter bottom line. Toyota, on the other hand, spent $800 million developing the Prius, which may eventually pay off handsomely, but GM in particular is just too chicken-shit to make a similar investment. At least Ford is selling hybrids -- they licensed Toyota's tech.
Toyota will soon overtake GM as the world's largest auto maker. GM's been #1 since 1931, and last year their bonehead CEO said "We've been ahead for 73 years in a row, and the betting odds are we'll be ahead for the next 73 years."
I'll take that bet. My bank account against 1% of his.
By Joseph Thvedt, at
4:16 PM
