First Impressions On The New Emusic

06Jul09

So now I’ve had a few days to go through portions of the new Emusic catalog, and here are a few of my impressions:

• I see nothing from Chicago (Say what you want about them, their first three albums were more interesting than what most long-lived bands and/or artists do over a twenty year career) or The Velvet Underground (although Lou Reed is well represented). A disappointment, but it’s not the worst of the lot…
• “Album Only” cuts. That’s right, folks, if you want to get certain tracks you have to buy the whole thing. Now I understand the bigger cuts being linked with the whole, but what peeves me is that all the hits have the limitation of being stuck to the album(s) they’re with.
• Since when is an eight track album worth paying twelve tracks for? I don’t care if it’s The Boss(tm), last I checked Emusic didn’t have a policy in place that allowed for charging what amounts to more than a credit per track.
• Having said that, there IS plenty here to add to my collection. Certain single tracks that I’ve long wanted or had pilfered I can actually buy now (I prefer my music legal and paid for. It’s called supporting the artist, and if can’t make it to the artist’s concerts (or worse, there’s no concerts to go to) at least pay for the occasional track and send them some love THAT way), plus some long-lost cuts and artists I’ve long wanted.
• I also like that they’re trying to make the whole experience integrated, like the independent record seller from the mid-eighties. “Six Degrees” leads from one major LP (major or not) to six other LPs. This is something similar to what’s attempted with Amazon and other places with their “If You Like X, You’ll Like (Y, Z, W, V, etc.”

So that’s my start. Like I said, I’m sticking around to see how things work out. If this place turns out like the local record store in the late eighties (enough of a mix to satisfy everyone), I may stick around a long time. If the critics are right (Indies get pushed out by the biggies by force or by abandonment OR if Emusic becomes unworkable as a source of music, I WILL join the exodus.

Filed under: Consumer Culture, Economics, music   |  Leave a Comment

The Test Cell: Worth Saving?

23Jun09

Recently I read a blog about some small building on the Edge of the IIT campus. That led to another blog, where Mr. Lifson champions the keeping of said building. And since the guy was worked up about the coming destruction of the site and it was close enough for me to go up there and see for myself, I did a tour.

First, here’s the picture of the approach to the building from the CTA Red Line:

Yes, it was cloudy.

Just so you know, this was the start of one of the most awe-inspiring views in Chicago once. Not “Awe-inspiring” as in “WOW,” but as in “Oh My Bleeping God, I Can’t Believe This!/Watching With One Eye While Driving Up The Dan Ryan” Awe-inspiring. Now, as you can see, there’s nothing but development for Black Yuppies…and enough space for a new station here.

And now, looking north along the service drive where the Test Cell is at. The squat, intentionally nondescript building with the white sign on the corner is the test cell:

Yeah, I know…big whoop.

But…look closer:

Okay, nothing major here. Other forms of lying bricks are placed elsewhere on campus. There’s supposed to be a departure for Meis, but the Stretcher Bond is so common that nobody need worry about missing it. Maybe there’s some interesting stuff inside, but unless there’s tours of the building nobody’s going to see it.

But…what about the greater view? After all, this is supposed to be an entrance onto the campus, according to the blogger. Okay…we’ll see about that:

The blogger says that the Test Cell, the wall alongside and the power plant make a good visual sight. No complaints from me, I did think it was nice-looking even when taking the pictures.

The car in the distance is now close. See the whitish post above the car?

Getting ready to make the 90 Degree Turn onto the campus…

There’s the white car in the above picture, so where’s our showcase building? Maybe behind the white box?

Maybe this building is what I’m looking for, to the left? Want to see the front, though…

Hello Beautiful! (pause a moment to get one’s breath back).

Of course, Mr. Lifson was trying to make it out like the the service drive was the preparation for something grand. And I understand the idea of entryways; I remember the two times I entered the Oak Park Unitarian Church (a funeral and a wake for a friend; so while the do-it-yourself tour was free I’m sure those who paid got a better, more enlightening tour without the leaden weights of mourning) and going down the entryway only to rise up into the sanctuary. Definitely a site worth seeing (and paying for), no matter your opinions on Mr. Wright.

But this does not cut it…at least not in relationship to Crown Hall. Maybe with the rest of the campus (which is ugly as hell if you ask me, but then I will say the guy worked with what he had, and had Mr. Meis had access to more steel and glass the campus would probably look much better…), but it was supposed to be Crown Hall which was to be looked upon. And while it’s not hard to FIND Crown Hall, I thought the idea was to be surprised with it upon turning right from the service drive onto the campus itself.

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Now for the whole…I can’t say the building is worth saving. Especially since we’re talking about adding a Metra Stop in the area. I seriously believe the benefit to the area would be worth the loss of the small, nondiscript building.

Filed under: Chicagoland   |  Leave a Comment

eMusic Adds On a Major Label, increases prices. Now What? (version 1.1, with edits)

04Jun09

On June 3rd, 2009, I checked out eMusic to see if there was anything new that I might want to download and I’m met with a major announcement of a massive expansion of their selection and a severe increase in per download prices (same price, fewer downloads). Of course, I read many of the comment and after a few balanced comments there was the torrent of “OMIGOD, YOU JUST RUINED EMUSIC FOR ME FOREVER!” postings.

For a moment (before you read the tonnes of flamage), let me tell you my thoughts and opinions on this:

• Don’t like the price increase on this (and I DON’T like that they hid the price increase as download decreases), but I can swallow it. A company needs to make money to continue (after all, we’re talking about something we can go without, unlike automobiles…). I must say I’m glad that the dig on me is not nearly as bad as it is for some.
• Sony/BMG? Okay…the biggest of the majors, and the lamest of the majors. If you could have gotten WEA, I would have been much happier.
• The company needed to handle this much better. A dictate from on-high, with an attempt to overload the senses doesn’t fool anyone; indeed much of the responses seem to be people goaded by the tactic.
• I can see myself downloading some of the stuff in the Sony/BMG catalog. The Velvet Underground and the first 3 Chicago albums immediately come to mind, I’m sure there’s a few other offerings there that will be worth doing. After all, while I always tried to support indie labels, I have no problem buying and/or supporting a Major Label Artist.
• Hope: That people will jump in for the Sony/BMG stuff and find themselves ordering more Independent stuff. Fear: That Sony/BMG stuff will crowd out the independents, causing eMusic to become what it once was the alternative to.
• And finally: Will I Stay On? Maybe. I’ll want to try it out for a few months. Hopefully the addition of Sony/BMG doesn’t foreshadow a severe downhill drift in Emusic; but if it does it won’t be the first time I’ve stuck by something after its “sell by” date (and this time I’ll definitely be ready to jump off.

Anyway, that’s my take.

Filed under: Consumer Culture, music, personal   |  3 Comments

The Sky Has Indeed Fallen…

01Jun09

Yes, the once greatest business in the world, longtime Fortune 1 Company (or Fortune 2 when Exxon/Mobil was a bit bloated for its own good), granter of prosperity to wherever its factories sat, builder of dreams (or their automotive analogs), the force behind suburbia, malls, the drive-in movie and expressways – bankrupt and getting reorganized into a smaller, “better,” more skinflinty company. Fewer cars (and brands) to sell, lower wages and benefits for workers (and, one hopes, for the C?Os who leach off the cream of the place) and a smaller chance at recovery.

Yes, Virginia, the sky has fallen.

Here’s what worries me: Now that we’ve seen GM cry “uncle,” are people going to buy the cars from the now-bankrupted company? As I’ve written about before, there’s a lot of hatred towards GM; what if with this bankruptcy and takeover by the government this hatred becomes solidified in a “Boycott Chevy” movement? Ford is still “solvent,” and while they may not be able to meet the ramped up demand that this boycott would meet, there’s a possibility that between Ford, The Japanese cars and the “Drive For 200,000 (not a bad idea, imho)” whatever demand that the reduced GM could have covered would be sopped up.

Meanwhile the remaining factory in Flint (Flint Powertrain) will close. From 80,000 to 0 in thirty years. Who would have thought…

Filed under: Cars, Economics   |  Leave a Comment

A Neocon Victory, and a Neocon Thought

24May09

A couple things have been sitting in my mind:

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Chicago’s parking meters have been privatized, and it appears the city courts seem to have taken the job of enforcing the parking meter laws with a new vigor. Fees have been for the most parts increased, and the courts have been less and less forgiving, making a point of finding reasons to keep the fees. New rules for the challenge have been created and (of course) not written down or told to everyone. Obvious cases of pre-emptive ticketing have been held up, with every excuse used to make the tickets legal. Non-working meters seem to no longer exist.

As I sit here, I have to wonder why the hell the city couldn’t have done the price-raising on the parking meters themselves. Shift the price from $.25/15 minutes to $.25/10 minutes (and the hour spots to maybe 45 minutes or half an hour).

But I forget…it’s “The Magic of Private Ownership ™.” Never mind that Chicago has handed over control of the streets to some company for pennies on the dollar, they’re suddenly treating parking rules as so sacred that those rules stay in effect even when there’s rules that dictate exceptions (such that for broken meters).

And don’t tell me about corruption, as I’m sure the same rules for getting out of stuff exist today as they did before Daley sold off the parking meters.

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So now, along with the neocon whining about how prices aren’t being allowed to drop “down to where they belong” (interesting that they want prices and wages (always wages, and always wages to the workers) but never debts to drop) but they’re now talking about how “home ownership gums up the economic works.”

That’s right…you own your house, you’re messing with the economy.

Here’s how they explain it: People own their houses, they’re going to stay there when the jobs leave for “better shores” (cheaper wages, better exploitation of locals, grungier pollution of surroundings) thereby withdrawing their talents from the greater economy where it can do “the greatest good” (Not helping their kids grow or keeping the neighborhood stable by doing stuff in it or keeping the church going; NO…gotta keep the gears of the machine working, children neighborhood and God were meant to be ignored of course).

Now understand: There’s sometimes good reason for renting (limited time expected at the place, renting is cheaper, don’t care to take care of house and lawn, etc.), but generally owning a home is preferrable to renting an apartment. Indeed, many places, neighborhoods and governments work to persuade people to buy houses instead of renting. The present depression was caused, in part, because of the abuses this drive for people to buy houses caused (or allowed).

So what do the neocons and corporatistas want? Simply put, a work force willing to follow them to the ends of the earth, wherever they choose to go, with no allegiances other to their jobs and the company who hires them at the moment. Why else would they praise IBM’s opening of foreign jobs to American workers (complete with helping them move to their new digs)?

Any wonder Communism and Socialism was popular once? And should be (imho)?

Filed under: Economics, politics   |  Leave a Comment

Pepsi and Dew Throwback

01May09

Yeah, it’s been a while since I posted anything about soda pops. But then, when Dr. Pepper keeps trying to put out a cherry version of their soda and Dew coming out with different flavors to expand THAT branding beyond any sense, I didn’t see any use. Besides, there were more important issues (like why the American Car Companies were dying, and why all the celebrations over their coming demise). Pepsi Natural seemed to be trying too hard to justify its name (and a bit too expensive to boot) to be worth a review here.

But Pepsi did something different: Put out their old recipes for their sodas. More specifically, these two items:

That’s right, the original Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Complete with Sugar. Not sure if it’s cane sugar or genetically modified beet sugar, but it’s sugar nevertheless. They each also have a few fewer ingredients than the present items (Pepsi now has BOTH sugar and HFCS; Dew adds Orange Juice amongst other things).

The Pepsi I knew right away was better than the stuff they put out nowadays as Pepsi. From the first sip to the way the taste holds up as it warms up to the smell as you work on those last drops; this was the old Pepsi that I remember drinking, the Pepsi that challenged Coke (and nearly passed Coke as the #1 cola before the New Coke made the Pepsi Challenge passe). Pure Sodapop Heaven! And to think that for years Pepsico accepted that Pepsi would have what some of us (me included) would describe as a dirty taste on the back of the throat!

Mountain Dew presented a challenge, as I think they handled the changeover better with that pop. The addition of Orange Juice added some flavor that seemed to make up for the effect of the HFCS. Indeed, I had to try the two out side-by-side to recognize the differences.

But those differences came up clear with the side-by-side. The HFCS Mountain Dew has a heavier taste that sticks close to the tongue and becomes bitter towards the back, whereas the Throwback Mountain Dew has a light flavor that rises in the mouth as you swallow it. Yes, I know that description sounds funny (”How does a flavor rise when it goes down the throat?”), but that’s how it feels to my mouth.

Overall, I would say the Pepsi Throwback is very much a success. The Mountain Dew is more up in the air to me, as I’d like the stronger flavor without the back-of-the-throat bitterness of the present day Dew.

And this comes from someone with TOO MUCH knowledge of what pops taste/tasted like.

Filed under: Consumer Culture, Food Issues, pop   |  Leave a Comment

What I Would Do If I Could Save GM?

19Apr09

Onbrands emailed me a thoughtful response to my previous posting, along with a challenge:

…what would you say that Big Three need to do to win consumers back? Let’s say you are the CEO of GM, what is your plan to win consumers back?

Well, let’s assume that GM can be saved. Probably the biggest issue with betrayal is that people who have been betrayed cannot stand the existence of the betrayer and, if they have the power, will wipe the betrayer out of existence. Past that, there are serious questions about whether the company could even be saved now. Bankruptcy usually starts long before the actual financial collapse, and General Motors is no exception — inability/unwillingness to build small cars, an embraced blindness to quality issues, an inability to trim costs in management (heck, they ended up doing stuff that bloated the managerial ranks) that probably exacerbated its labor issues, and an inability/unwillingness to trim their system at all levels (laws made things hard, but that just meant they would have had to take a longer view than they were willing to do with the franchises), bizarre additions (HUMMER, anyone?). Add to that the nationwide hatred of and for General Motors, and you have a recipe for the death of an industry (and the celebration for that death — British Leyland may have been doomed, at least the British Automobile industry was properly mourned).

But…assuming they can be saved, here’s my prescription for what needs to be done to save GM:

• Do not fear bankruptcy. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, and your situation is desperate.
• Save what can be saved. I would save two brands right off the bat: Chevrolet, which even in its weakened state sells over 1/8th of the cars in the United States, and Cadillac as the high-end brand with a strong identity and marketplace acceptance.
• Figure out what would make a good mid-level car company. The Pontiac/Buick/GMC attempt is a start, but it’s a bit clunky. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Oldsmobile name revived, as it has the feel of the family/middle class identity, unlike Pontiac (sporty), Saturn (oddball revolutionary-wannabee) or Buick (entry-level luxury). Maybe keep the Pontiac moniker to identify the more sporty versions of the brands, and the GMC model name actually makes sense for trucks sold outside the Chevy line.
• Dump the rest of the brands. Saturn…off to the moon with you. Hummer…Fuck Off Goodbye. Buick outside of China…Goodbye. Saab…Here, Sweden; you deal with it.
• Thin out your management ranks. Do you really need fifteen layers? Figure out a way to simplify things, maybe redevelop a form of your former structure where the companies had some independence and their own brands (instead of badges and cosmetic changes). The simplification of brands should help, and should force the shrinkage itself. I would also suggest focusing on cutting the bean-counters more than the others; as you seem to do that more than is healthy for a company.
• Deal with the unions. A butchering in the Management ranks will make this easier, both in cutting down the scope of what you need to get from the Unions and in making the Union easier to deal with (When workers in power see a bloated bureaucracy asking for handouts from the workers, the workers most obviously fight back. Cut management fat and the deal gets easier, even if it’s from fear.).
• Clean up the distribution network. The Saturn Dealerships will be easy to dump , but there needs to be a lot of cleanup. Also, you should push for a national set of rules for franchises instead of the 50 separate state rules which now make things hard to deal with.
• Admit your mistakes to your public. You now do this on occasion under circumstances that make the public suspicious of your motives, maybe this time pound it in people’s head through advertising. A year of this as your main advertising line will at least make people think you’re really contrite over your past mistakes, unlike now when you do this when you hit us up with money or try to foist a guilt trip on us for buying Japanese/Korean/Euro brands instead of your stuff.
• Mean the admission. Like what you did at Buick City when Michael Moore declared you were getting ready to close the factory and you turned around and worked at things until you made what was then the best car made in the USA (Buick LeSabre). Only this time make it company-wide, with every model and version of model. This will take years, keep it up and word will spread.
• New blood in the management and design/engineering departments. Maybe during your cutbacks in management, you could overcut with the idea of hiring newer, brighter blood when the time came to refill the ranks. Again, add bean-counters only as to what’s needed. Focus on car lovers for your new hires.

It will take lots of money. Money that could easily go elsewhere, and thus will have to be justified.

And the sad thing about this? You could have probably gotten away with this back in 1990-1991, when you were in a similar position. You wouldn’t have needed to go so far in fixing yourself, either. Such mistakes as the Hummer or the Buick Rainier were still “in the future,” maybe they wouldn’t have been made. Fewer brands would have needed to be cut, maybe one or two (the more logical ones) instead of the holocaust now needed (assuming success).

But one must do now what one can. At least try to do it, anyway.

Filed under: Cars, Consumer Culture   |  Leave a Comment

Why People Hate GM Anyway (at least my reconing)

13Apr09

I was thinking recently over all the stories I had heard over the years why people chose Import brands (and if they were indeed imported, so much the better). And I counted nearly thirty different explanations, each one talking about a car they had five to twenty-five years ago that had something so wrong that they turned instead to the new car brand in town, or finally listened to that friend who had bragged about buying foreign (who would needle him mercilessly for a few weeks after buying the jap job). And there was always a reference to the “Union Workers Who Spent More Time Sleeping At Their Job Than Actually Putting The Cars Together(tm),” although usually it was added in as a slight extra justification.

So many stories, all with the idea of a single flaw (however big it may have been) being a reason to throw away a whole group and celebrate the sufferings of those who allied themselves with it. And every one of these stories came a wave of emotion. I never understood it.

Until now.

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Consider this: You spend a sizable amount of money on an item. An item that you expect will take you around everywhere you want to go. And something happens that makes it impossible, and you end up spending a lot of $$$ for something that couldn’t be fixed, or worse bring the item in only to learn that said it was built wrong and couldn’t be made right.

Meanwhile, a different version of that item is made elsewhere that not exceeds all expectations, and without being the high-end luxury item.

You’d feel one thing: BETRAYED.

And you’d turn against the company that made you the item that fell apart.

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Now: That company that has “betrayed” the buyers is GM/Ford/Chrysler/AMC.

After all, people have spent lots of money on cars only to find out they’ve bought a piece of junk. American cars for many years were built with 100,000 miles as the high-end, and everyone knows about the ten cents/car that GM chose over an item that would stabilize the Corvair, or the $2.40 that would have kept Pintos from exploding. Or the V-8/6/4 Caddy that had a thing for becoming a V-0, or the 200,000 mile Diesel V8 Oldsmobiles that seemed to confuse 100,000 as 200,000 miles and fell apart then. Or the Chrysler Trannies that can’t work well, or the Sebring that looks like a Edsel raped a Pinto and forced the Pinto to bring the pregnancy to full term. Or, for that matter, the Cobalts that can’t fit 6′4″ drivers within their driver spaces (while the import Aveo has no problem with head room).

And while they may have some problems with their latest Nissan Versa/Tilde or Honda Insight or Lexus XE, it’s not like the bad old days, when things went automatically wrong with the American cars and nothing was/could be done to fix them.

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Here’s the key point of the Betrayal: You can’t fix it right.

You can fix your cars so they come #1 on the JD Powers polls, make the most fuel-efficient fleet in the land and even win races regularly; the people betrayed will remember the betrayal and base their decisions on that. And while it seems irrational (considering everything that’s gone on since then), it’s the fact that they had to make a move and it was (or had become, in many instances) the wrong move that stays logically remembered.

No one likes their trust played with. And with lots of money involved in buying a new car, there’s no real room for a second chance. You’d be better off gambling on an unknown than going back to the bitch that ruined you before.

And that’s why people hate American Car Companies.

Filed under: Cars, Consumer Culture, morals   |  1 Comment

Did Disco Die in 1979? And Why?

07Apr09

Yeah, I know. Disco sucked, and the world improved when it died at the old Comisky Park that summer day in 1979 after the first game of a Chicago White Sox/Detroit Tigers Doubleheader (BTW…thanks for the win, Dahl).

But…why did Disco “die” in 1979? And Why, if it did?

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Thing is, music isn’t just music. A music scene also takes on a form of dress, a form of dance, a form of relating to the opposite sex, a flavor of political identity (and level of involvement in addition)…in other words, a worldview.

So how does Disco relate in each of these ways (especially in relation to Rock in the Seventies, the musical form which it was a response to)?

• music: Disco was made to be danced to, whereas Rock had long developed into the sort of music that you sat down and listened to.
• dress: Disco required people to dress up to involve themselves into the music, whereas Rock merely required jeans and a T-shirt.
• dance: At a rock concert? Heck, Punk had more dancing than Rock in the Seventies, and it was sometimes dangerous for woman to be punk.
• the opposite sex/desire: As an example of Rock’s Misogyny: how many female Rock singers do we know of? Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks (Solo pushes her over the brink), Joan Jett, Patty Smythe (was asked to replace David Lee Roth when he left Van Halen, so she counts), Sharon Osborne (include because she’s the power behind Ozzy), maybe the Go-Gos as a group. Otherwise, women were better off to the side, stripped for easy access.  Disco, on the other hand, had no problem with women singers, and women were especially catered to.
• political identity/level of involvement: Rock was mildly homophobic and linked to the status quo (although more by omission than commission, it could take properly leftist stands when it felt the need); Disco was obstensively politically neutral, but knew its debt to gays (which in some ways was duly noted).

In other words, it was a threat to a group of men who had grown used to being catered to (if only through their fantasies). Steve Dahl, who found his job in Chicago because his Los Angeles girlfriend had to get creative to get rid of him (and sleep peacefully at night), understood this: “The average guy…didn’t have the right clothes, couldn’t get into the right clubs, and thought he’d never get laid again because of disco,” was his comment in reaction to what happened.

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Now before I declare what I think the “disco scene” died from, let it be known that there were other things going on.

First off, disco was being worked to death. As a rockist with an open ear opined, “While Disco paved the way for Donna Summer and other good singers, it also butchered a lot of other formerly good singers with its touch.” Not only that, but the audience was changing (and the sound with it).

Part of the issue with Disco was that it wasn’t so much the scene of the young and hip as it was the scene of an older group of people living out the adolescence they felt they were denied in their rush to get married and raise children. Older women were dressing up and putting themselves out onto the meat market, and the men who wanted to be there had to learn how to dress, dance and shmooze for their chance. And when those women (and the men who chased them) decided to settle down and do other things, the scene had to change.

And then there was all that hatred of Disco. Mind you, it wasn’t just Dahl and the Chicago people; there was a lot of Disco Hatred even before 1977. Casey Casem actually apologized when “(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty” made #1 in the AT Top 40 Countdown. I know I hated Disco from 1976 through 1980, through four different school districts, and while it was a hard time, the rough times started AFTER I started hating Disco.

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But I believe that Steve Dahl had a major hand in killing Disco in America and pushing the dance scene back underground. Not so much because of his act, but because of what it showed Disco to be, in some ways.

Simply put, Disco proved to be the province of wimps. Rock had its long period of fighting for acceptance (and actual defeat), Punk had its active opposition to the mainstream, Rap came from the Black experience AKA the American Underclass (as did Jazz, Soul, Blues and R&B), Alternative took Punk’s path and pains for its own at the start, and Country spent decades in a southern/rural exile before rising to its present-day prominence. Disco didn’t have to deal with any real opposition until Disco Demolition Night; in many ways this was its first true dealings with hate…and it folded. Clubs closed, stations changed formats, and fans hid away in a newfound “appreciation” of domestic “bliss;” all because of a bit of hatred thrown their way.

I know of other views; but to me this is the best.

Filed under: Chicagoland, music   |  1 Comment

What Detroit Should Have Understood Sometime In The Mid-Eighties:

30Mar09

It’s kind of sad. I would not be shocked to find out that the Obama GM/Chrysler “Rescue (yeah,right)” plan was a sting set up so the creditors of the car companies get all their stuff while the Stockholders get nothing and the Unions get EVERYTHING (retirement and insurance, as well as other things) LOOTED from their coffers. And I would not be surprised if the voice of America would be a moment of Celebration.

But worries and smartass comments aside: While listening to NPR following the news of Wagoner’s ouster by Obama, I heard that people in Detroit didn’t understand why everyone hated Detroit.

Now…pause a moment and consider that.

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Now; my comment as a GM son who’ll end up going down with this ship (And I expect it to go down. Suicide? Nah, a matter of extreme loyalty and a remembrance of my past.):

GM and Chrysler, Listen Up:

You’ve been putting out crappy cars for what the public sees as the past forty years or so. You learned to put out crap, pass the buck and blame your customers for stuff you did (or didn’t do). And you did so while under pressure from Japan, Europe and South Korea.

All this time, you’ve always shot for the least common denominator. Your stuff was always less economical than the Japanese stuff, less fun than the European stuff, less stylish than even the South Korean Stuff; and often worse quality than the whole (outside of a few aberrations, like Buick and Mercury). You had your moment in the sun in the nineties with the SUV boom, but you chose to profit lazily from it and when that passed you guys were unable to respond.

And now you’re asking for help. All the while proving again and again that you STILL DON’T GET IT!

Well guess what: You had forty years to fix your cars and your image. You could have at least learn what Ford did with their issues with the Ford Focus: Fix things, get them right and keep up with it. You also had forty years to learn how to put out small cars and keep them out there despite their seeming inability to make you money (Not like you made money off your other cars…never was an industry so dependent on its lending arms to make money as the Automobile Industry was.).

But instead you sat by, let things fall apart and tried to profit off the remains.

And what have we got left? The Minivan Leader (Chrysler) doesn’t have a car that a Consumers Union tester would choose over walking. And GM keeps finding ways to piss off its remaining steady clients (look up “Piston Knock GM” in a search engine, or better yet follow this link to the website). GM can’t even get its headroom issues right; the cars you import for sale fit tall people better than the cars you make.

Is it any wonder people would rather throw money at AIG and Citicorp than you? AIG has to work hard to look like they’re wasting taxpayer money to get people angry; all you have to do is show up!

And I’ll tell you why that is: Sometimes people just get enough of something, and they leave it behind. People will wade through issue after issue trying to hold onto a love they remember; once they give up on that love there is no going back, as you now have an enemy. And once you make enough enemies, it becomes impossible to redeem one’s self.

And you’ve made enough enemies over the years that you’ve pretty much become a backwater company for those who either don’t know of any alternative or have been in some way compensated for their loyalty. And I know of no company (okay, I know one company; and they live on despite the hatred) that survives on monies given to them by their employees or sales force alone.

Hear that roar? It’s the masses of Americans cheering over your coming demise! They’d rather buy Tatas from India and Cherys from China than buy your offerings. You’ve wrecked too many relationships, burned too many bridges and made too much crap for the nation to forgive you! They’d rather watch you die EVEN WHEN THEY KNOW THEY’RE NEXT than have you survive to make another car – that’s how strong the hatred is.

Just a voice in the wilderness. One who’s listened to other voices while in said wilderness.

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