Celebrating independence and individual liberties

Margie Gunderson wrote:

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Ahem x 2 ... I drove an American Motors Hornet in the 70s. Yes, after gas prices exploded. Red. Hatchback. Roomy, but cheap on gas. I loved my Hornet, made in Kenosha ... mine had very few maintenence problems and was inexpensive to insure, even in town. And I put serious miles on that car, driving between here, Milw and Chicago. And no, I wasn't a dealer. And the brand vanished because no one purchased American-made economy cars after gas leveled off.

I remember waiting in line to get 5 bucks worth of gas. My friend had a Pacer and it was all glass and I thought the sun would cook me in the backseat.

That's why I didn't let anyone else drive the Hornet ... just me ... now you know how selfish and un-American I really am.

DIogenes wrote:

How many of you regret your vote for Obama?

I don't. Why would I?

I DO regret that Obama has Bush's mess to clean up, but he's doing a splendid job of it so far. Remember...it took 8 years for Bush to screw things up; I don't expect it to be fixed overnight.

djigoo wrote:

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I don't. Why would I?
I DO regret that Obama has Bush's mess to clean up, but he's doing a splendid job of it so far. Remember...it took 8 years for Bush to screw things up; I don't expect it to be fixed overnight.

Yes, the 'the former president ate my homework' excuse won FDR a few extra terms as well.

How does one explain how taking money from the taxpayers and then creating a government program help the economy? I think the GWB stimulus package was worthless, and the current versions are verging on the disastrous. I guess I subscribe to the Hazlitt idea of the Broken Window Fallacy of spending. Indeed, Spain is discovering that for every green job created by the rush to stop global warming, more than 2 jobs are lost in the private sector, meaning a net loss of jobs there. If I'm not mistaken, Spain has an unemployment rate around 18%.

More to the point if government increases in power and influence, then it will be at the expense of the individual. Today, we are told what toilets to own, what light bulbs to use, and soon we will be told what cars we can drive, and what we can eat. Soon, we will be told what to say. I call this a soft tyranny. The only question is how long will it be before we have a hard tyranny?

DIogenes wrote:

How many of you regret your vote for Obama?

Many!!!

Gndydncr wrote:

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I don't think it was just the boneheaded top management's love affair with large high unit-profit SUVs and trucks that contributed to the problem. It was America's love affair with those vehicles. If no one bought them, they would have been large ZERO unit-profit SUVs and trucks. I'll bet a great many of the autoworkers bought those vehicles themselves so that they could tow their boats, snowmobiles, and travel trailers to their off-road lake homes or favorite fishing, hunting, and vacation locations. I know many a good hard-working fine upstanding union members who did exactly that.
Do you think the world is better off or worse off without Packard, Kaiser, Willys, Studebaker, Stutz, Duesenberg, et cetera?

Yes, there was obviously a market for those SUVs and trucks --'cuz they sold. What had top management stand out as ossified was their lack of interest in ALSO producing the small cars that Honda and Toyota were selling madly. They sat for years and watched the imports steadily gain market share, and apparently chose to focus on the higher unit-profit SUVs and didn't bother to engage on the battlefront of lower unit-profit small cars. That was the problem.

I think the automotive world is worse off without those other manufacturers now extinct. Perhaps some of their top managements would have paid more attention to the market than the Big Four, and adapted. Heck, maybe the imports would never have gotten a toehold in this market, if Stutz and Packard had started making the small & efficient cars that Honda & Toyota now furnish. Imagine the Daytona 500 with another six makers in the race. "...and it is Danica Patrick's Duesenberg in the Winners' Circle AGAIN this year..."

Imagine that!