How Bean Counters Destroyed the US Auto Industry

We are lectured by politicians about the demise of the domestic auto industry. Unions are blamed. Health costs are blamed. CAFE limits are blamed. Who has suggested that the auto executives who counted the beams were to blame? Have you ever visited the Corporate Office of major auto companies in the USA during their hey days. Large signs in the office lobby auspiciously displayed the daily stock price. The CEO and most of the officers were trained as MBA's and accountants who lived by the bottom line and occupied luxurious offices and were paid multi million dollar annual salaries. Quarterly profits and stock dividends drove their delusional decisions. Short term views prevailed. Marketing was based on glitz and more powerful engines. Long term R&D was minimized for short term profits.

The real cause of the demise was AWOL management. Top level management led their blue collar and white collar employees and stock holders into an abyss that cost our country most of our remaining manufacturing assets. Now they are bailed out despite years of mismanagement and the workers suffer along with long term stock holders. The beans were counted and swallowed by the executives who became bloated with hot gas and blinded by their own short sighted management.

The bail out will save some jobs, but unless management methods and goals improve the small three domestic auto companies will get smaller and require another bail out. Mismanagement must be allowed to fail. Our government must protect the workers but not inept management. Assign the workers full management responsibility and get the government out of paying the bean counters for their blunders.