A Light in the Compost Bin
Fifty years ago, it was great to be in the car business. In 1953, in speech before congress, the then-CEO of General Motors said that "what's good for General Motors is good for the country." And at the time, he was probably right...but few would disput the charge that the automobile giant has shit the proverbial bed in their mission to serve the country a few times since 1953.
Detroit, a former hotbed of industrial manufacturing, now lies mostly in ruin. Joblessness is at an all-time high, crime is still a massive problem, and property values have sunk so low that you hear stories about people buying entire city blocks of residential property for a few thousand dollars. And people ask: will the city ever make a comeback?
No one really knows, and I'm among them...but what I do know is that the people who are hoping that the automobile industry will bounce back to its former glory are most likely wrong. The days of car factories being great places to work with union wages and benefits are gone, and they're not coming back. People who are sitting by and waiting for a factory to open in Detroit, to throw open its doors and hire the good citizens of Detroit to work for them in droves, is a pipe dream, and it's not going to happen all of the sudden.
And unfortunately, I'd assert that this isn't isolated to Detroit or to the automobile industry. Detroit has it pretty bad, but lots of cities face this kind of hardship, and they're staring an extremely bleak future in the face. No one is coming to save them anytime soon.
That's a depressing thought for a Monday morning. But I'm an eternal optimist, so I think there's some good news in all of this.
Part of what got the auto industry into trouble in the first place was the fact that they became too big for their own good, lost touch with their customers, and started producing things that people didn't really want. (If I get any of this wrong, let me know.) This is remarkably common these days. Larger brands have a problem: for may of them, there's a growing gulf between what they say their product delivers in their advertisements and what it actual delivers in reality.
Coca-cola is supposed to be delivering joy in a bottle. McDonald's is selling convenience food. General Mills is using a Leprechaun to sell a cereal loaded with sugar. All good ideas, but in some ways, they're contributing to the rising number of health problems we're facing. The disparity between what marketing promises and what the product delivers erodes trust. In the wake of 2008, trust levels have sunk critically low. I don't think big brand names are going to disappear anytime soon, but they have their work cut out for them. It's not going to be as easy for them as it was 20 years ago.
In this lack of public trust lies an opportunity. I don't believe the factories are going to come back and save us. But I do believe in the everlasting passion people have for creating things. I believe people will always find new ways of making money solving other peoples' problems. I believe in the capacity of the human mind to adapt to new problems by finding solutions. I believe that we all want what is best for ourselves, and what is best for everyone else in our local community. I believe that people will always be able to find something to believe in even when society's mores seem empty or corrupt.
I believe that history is filled with people whose names we've never heard of, unsung people who chose to do work that mattered and to sacrifice instead of making money, and that all of us, today, are better off because of those choices. There are people today who are doing this. To them (and you, if you're one of them): thanks.
Detroit, a former hotbed of industrial manufacturing, now lies mostly in ruin. Joblessness is at an all-time high, crime is still a massive problem, and property values have sunk so low that you hear stories about people buying entire city blocks of residential property for a few thousand dollars. And people ask: will the city ever make a comeback?
No one really knows, and I'm among them...but what I do know is that the people who are hoping that the automobile industry will bounce back to its former glory are most likely wrong. The days of car factories being great places to work with union wages and benefits are gone, and they're not coming back. People who are sitting by and waiting for a factory to open in Detroit, to throw open its doors and hire the good citizens of Detroit to work for them in droves, is a pipe dream, and it's not going to happen all of the sudden.
And unfortunately, I'd assert that this isn't isolated to Detroit or to the automobile industry. Detroit has it pretty bad, but lots of cities face this kind of hardship, and they're staring an extremely bleak future in the face. No one is coming to save them anytime soon.
That's a depressing thought for a Monday morning. But I'm an eternal optimist, so I think there's some good news in all of this.
Part of what got the auto industry into trouble in the first place was the fact that they became too big for their own good, lost touch with their customers, and started producing things that people didn't really want. (If I get any of this wrong, let me know.) This is remarkably common these days. Larger brands have a problem: for may of them, there's a growing gulf between what they say their product delivers in their advertisements and what it actual delivers in reality.
Coca-cola is supposed to be delivering joy in a bottle. McDonald's is selling convenience food. General Mills is using a Leprechaun to sell a cereal loaded with sugar. All good ideas, but in some ways, they're contributing to the rising number of health problems we're facing. The disparity between what marketing promises and what the product delivers erodes trust. In the wake of 2008, trust levels have sunk critically low. I don't think big brand names are going to disappear anytime soon, but they have their work cut out for them. It's not going to be as easy for them as it was 20 years ago.
In this lack of public trust lies an opportunity. I don't believe the factories are going to come back and save us. But I do believe in the everlasting passion people have for creating things. I believe people will always find new ways of making money solving other peoples' problems. I believe in the capacity of the human mind to adapt to new problems by finding solutions. I believe that we all want what is best for ourselves, and what is best for everyone else in our local community. I believe that people will always be able to find something to believe in even when society's mores seem empty or corrupt.
I believe that history is filled with people whose names we've never heard of, unsung people who chose to do work that mattered and to sacrifice instead of making money, and that all of us, today, are better off because of those choices. There are people today who are doing this. To them (and you, if you're one of them): thanks.