The Big Three automakers in the United States are pleading for 25 billion dollars which they will invest in innovation. The Canadian counterparts also have their cap extended. One of my favourite New York Times columnists, Thomas Friedman, asks what business these companies are in, if not innovation? He wonders why on earth taxpayers should bail out an industry which is supposed to look down the road, literally and figuratively, and produce a product people will want to buy. Even though he is an American he points out that Toyota in Alliston, Ontario is opening a new engine plant which will produce engines for fuel-efficient vehicles.
I have been very reluctant to be harsh about the car industry knowing that so many people in this area have taken such a huge hit in terms of employment. Yet it appears that willful greed on the part of people who were paid huge salaries to provide leadership has run these once proud companies into the ground. Friedman argues as others have that any money going into the car companies must be contingent on a wholesale dismissal of upper management.
It's hard for any organization, including the church, to choose a different way forward when a particular path seems comfortable. I think of that phrase from a recent blog that "the status quo is an opiate." Our society will need to find a different path, by the grace of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment