Detroit, America’s Waterloo

Ever since Henry Ford gave us the 'Model T' Detroit has dictated what America should drive. The tsarist attitude of Motown remained unchallenged for decades while the Big Three reigned supreme.

In their assembly-line fortresses pregnant with delusory arrogance, erratic leadership ignored sound business practices and substituted gimmickry guaranteed to snaffle success. Any break-through system technology was haughtily dismissed. The rigorous discipline of William Edwards Deming's statistical quality control, eagerly embraced by Toyota, was reluctantly recognized only because quality imports were flooding U.S. highways, not because Detroit was concerned about building quality cars with greater fuel efficiency.

When executives at Ford, after a whopping 3 Billion dollar loss, went looking for a miracle cure from Deming they were stunned that he questioned not only their flagrant disregard for consumer satisfaction and sloppy manufacturing processes, but his utmost concern was their utterly dismal corporate climate.

The formidable financial flop of John Z. De Lorean and the scorched earth management style of Jose Ignacio Lopez, to name just a few of many myopic superstars, systematically piloted the shipwreck christened 'Automotive Industry' into the reefs. Continuous mafia style intimidating demands for price reduction from suppliers forced many small companies into bankruptcy and poisoned supplier relationships. Lopez's idiotic hype that workers should wear their wristwatch on the right wrist until Ford showed profits did little for their moral. I guess they are still looking to the right for the proper time of day.

The glaring obfuscation of performance vs. compensation for CEO's is unacceptable. "Parachutes", lifesavers for skilled skydivers, should not be available for non-performing executives. A bone-crushing landing might be incentive to shake up Detroit's self-complacent air of superiority. The free fall to corporate suicide must be averted by making the leaders walk the plank, and replacing them with executives of broad global wisdom.

In World War II the Automotive Industry was forced to re-tool and to manufacture tanks, weapons, even airplanes. Around 1930 the Detroit sector developed the Burlington Zephyr, doubling the average speed of existing trains. When the war was over, plans to produce high speed trains a la Europe and Japan were aborted at embryo-stage by the automotive despots.

Detroit, responding to the initial Angst over gasoline shortages in the past, offered déjà vu lip service that they would build more fuel efficient cars. As soon as the waiting lines at pumps disappeared so did their short lived promise. We have seen no reason to trust these incompetents to reform their self-assigned throne nor is there any indication that they would shed their royal robes trimmed in ignorance.

Apathetic to the oil-producing countries holding us over a barrel by skillfully manipulated supply vs. demand, distracted administrations were lulled into complacency. Assisted by special interest groups and a lethargic Washington, Detroit returned to producing larger profit gas guzzlers.

Unfortunately it is not only Detroit that failed us. Manufacturers across America who have adjudged conspiratorially to fabricate products with designed premature obsolescence should be horse-whipped. Our present economic nightmare is directly traceable to corporate greed, government lack of conscience and our own acceptance of their substantive 'spin' output.

Romy C. Schultz