"Driving" me crazy....

A few weeks ago I was in Denver with some time to kill so I went to the house I lived in for a few years as a child. I walked up to the door, rang the doorbell and asked the nice woman who answered if she had any objection to me taking a picture of the house. She asked me to clarify my name again and when I did she got all excited and invited me in. Apparently she and her husband bought the house from my parents 35 years ago and they have been living there ever since. The house looked great by the way and it was a treat to step back in time and see the old fireplace where my siblings and I posed for pictures in our PJs.

As I was talking to these fine people the subject of how much they paid for the house came up. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of 33K back in ’73 let’s say. WOW!! Kind of makes me want to hurl considering what I paid for my current house three years ago!

Now my point……

Listening to the news in the last 24 hours you might have heard all the hue and cry regarding the auto industry and their sad sales numbers for December. I am about sick of hearing how terrible this is and how my money should be used to help this bunch of ungrateful nuts salvage their livelihoods. You see, over the last many years the auto industry and everyone associated with it has done very well. The 33K used in 1973 to purchase a modest single-family home is now the price tag for a vehicle with some degree of quality.

I do not feel much sympathy for an industry that has been living the good life for a long time raping the public with over-priced, poorly built, machines of convenience that will never last as long as that house I lived in. Think of the cheesy approach of the salesman as you pull into the parking lot of a dealership just to have a look. The frothing at the mouth as they start working numbers in their minds based on what you look like, what you drove up in, and how well you know their products. Then fast-forward to the game that is played with the sales manager as you “negotiate” the actual out-the-door price and each time you give him/her your number they tell you how it “should” be no problem. Don’t even get me started on the whole financing game where the vultures prey on the weak and target those who really can’t afford a car but can easily get talked into signing on the dotted line.

Before we even get to this point, thousands of people are all working together to build these overpriced hunks of junk in factories all over the country. They have union contracts and make good money doing mind-numbing work so this whole game can continue. Have you ever bought a “Monday” car? How about a “Friday” car? I have this theory that on certain days the workers aren’t worth a crap and consequently the cars coming off the line those days are the lemons we all get to purchase.

I am being way too hard on these people I know. I really don’t know much about the industry but as a customer I have some experience. I have nothing against people making a living in their chosen vocation. I do however take issue with the whining and need for a handout to aid those who are victims of their own avarice. I say let the companies fall on their faces. In a capitalist society this happens. It is okay and yes there will be fallout but I am not signing up to fix their problems with my money. If these people associated with this industry are having a tough time then they should do as others have done and make a change.

Our economy is in the shitter right now regardless. Maybe the best way for all of us to get a grip is to feel some of the sting of the past many years-of-plenty. Fat years and lean years are not a new concept. History shows that when life is good we fail to acknowledge it sufficiently with gratitude and temperance and we fail to prepare for the eventual downturns that are sure to follow. It is interesting how we ourselves seem to be in full control of all of this. So why are we complaining now?