Fear and Anger in Michigan

As the economic crisis reaches the end of the early rounds, all eyes turn to Detroit--knocked to its knees by the credit crunch last November.  The news of the day: if GM wants more help getting back on its feet from Washington, there must be changes at the top.  Thus, 30-year car industry executive, Rick Wagoner, is stepping down. 

One question:  If asking Rick Wagoner to leave is good for GM---and by extension, good for the country--why is there so much fear in Gov. Granholm's (D-MI) voice? 

Why?  Fear and anger, that's why.  Fear and anger are rising in Michigan: Fear that things are about to get much, much worse than they already are; anger that the federal government is strong arming the Mitten State just a short while after opening up America's coffers to Wall Street with no strings attached.  New York gets what it wants, when it wants it from Washington, Michigan gets slapped in the face. The fat cats on Wall Street caused this problem, they sank the economy, and they got paid off by a robber-baron president as he scuttled out of office and tossed the keys to the new guy. Executives in Detroit get tarred and feathered and escorted to the door.

Fearful, angry arguments are never subtle, never accurate, but always hotter than molten steel.  Fear and anger reduces politics down to the simplest of all logic:  they did this to us, and they will pay for it.

Fear and anger are rising everywhere else, too, but in Michigan they are heating up at a pace that must have made a restful night's sleep a thing of the past for the beleaguered governor.   In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, the tremble in Jennifer Granholm's voice is apparent:

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The governor looks tired, no question about that. But there is more than exhaustion in her voice. Granholm was not really speaking to Matt Lauer when she called Wagoner a 'sacrificial lamb.' She was speaking to the millions of Michiganders who woke up this morning fearful for the future of their families, and angry at Washington for pushing around a state that has fallen on hard times.

The Obama administration must think--really think--or the fear and anger could explode into something much hotter. 

We walked up to this ledge before, 75 years ago.

In Studs Terkel's prophetic masterpiece Hard Times, psychiatrist Dr. David J. Rossman remembered those days:

Big business in 1930 and later in '32 came hat in hand, begging Roosevelt.  They have never gotten over their humiliation, and they have never forgiven him for having the wits to do something about it

The "humiliation" of GM began long ago.  It had nothing to do with the Obama administration, everything to do with a unforgiving market that turned its nose at what GM had to offer after decades of gobbling it up.  When GM fell to its knees last November and came hat in hand to the Bush administration, the people of Michigan blame their humiliation on fickle consumers and on Washington.  With hat in hand yet again and Rick Wagoner cast aside, the anger is focusing more and more on Washington alone.

Fear and anger are rising in Michigan and everywhere else. This morning, there must be more than one governor worried that Michigan could be the place where flint finally meets steel.

In the 30s, we are told, people never let their anger overtake them. They blamed themselves more than they blamed others.  Can the same be said today with Rush Limbaugh's broadcast bandwidth and accusations far larger and more toxic than Father Coughlin's ever were?  Will anger subside again as it did in those hard times? 

In all likelihood, Jennifer Granholm does not think it will, which means Obama's auto industry plan is about far more than restructuring. The half-life of hope has come and gone in Michigan.  What the White House, GM and Chrysler do this week--and the next six weeks--could be the moment students study 100 years from now.  This was where the 2009 recovery worked or, god forbid, this is where it failed.

In other words: What's good for Michigan is good for the country.

(cross-posted from Frameshop)

 

Follow Jeffrey Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffreyFeldman

Comments

[CosmicChaos]

03:09 PM on 04/07/2009

Sadly American's aren't willing to pay for higher fuel ecomony vehicles. At least at the numbers to make them profitable enough for the Automotive Industry to invest resources in building more of them. The poorest gas milage vehicles are STILL the most popular vehicles.

To make all vehicles more fuel efficient by 10 MPG they would an average increase in price of $5000 to begin to make all the automotive industry to break even on the costs. These improvemen­ts would also increase the complexiti­es of the vehicles making them harder to service.

As an Automotive Engineer, I would HAPPILY increase fuel economy. Unfortunat­ely, I am told at every side that American's aren't willing to pay the price for it.

I hope the CAFE standards shoot through the roof so that all vehicles sold in America can cost MORE. This is the only way to save the Automotive Industry. Prices have been frozen or even lowered on vehicles well below their costs to make them. CAFE increases should be finally the excuse to raise prices to what is necessary for the Auto Industry to make a small profit again.

I hope that this forces fewer car purchases over all and forces states to implement better Public Transporta­tion.

[BarryS]

10:12 PM on 04/05/2009

the Michigan pols played along with the auto comanies, allowing them to build gas guzzlers. CAFE was weakened by them. they are co-conspir­itors and will be held responsibl­e, as they should.

[corwin]

09:45 PM on 04/05/2009

I feel I'm wasting my time here ,but will try to enlighten.­Pres Obi is in a tough place;cert­ainly UAW wages are overpriced if by that one means the same job can be done as well and morre cheaply by someone else.That'­s always a bad position to find oneself.It­'sw why so many primary car docs' fear NP's.Secon­dly,when ever someone writes 10 % of the country will be laid off if GM/Chrysle­r go bankrupt,I want to groan.And I wish the author would tell in detail why what is good for Michigan is good for the country.

[PSM42]

01:52 PM on 04/05/2009

Big Oil controls GM's stock by Wall St. investment trusts that own hundreds of $B (B as in Billion) of oil stocks.

Big Oil killed the electric car and promoted gas guzzlers. _That_ is why GM has gone from $200B capitaliza­tion to $1.2B in ten years. While Toyota has gone from $20B to $200B.

"There is a $100T (T as in Trillion) worth of business still to be done." - Wally Rippel - Who Killed the Electric Car. One Trillion barrels of oil still in the ground, at $100 a barrel.

It is about power and money. GM is a bit player who got whacked as a side-effec­t of the Ne0c0n 'Masters of the Universe' PNAC hubris. Not that they helped themselves­. 'Tant pis.' One is _extremely­_ sorry for the workers, who had no hand in their own demise. It was entirely foreseeabl­e and the Ne0c0ns made it a certainty.

Doug Korthof - Liveoilfre­e Youtube channel - http://www­.youtube.c­om/liveoil­free

Who Killed the Electric Car - http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=_FDmmJm9v­SA

What we are dealing with - http://exi­ledonline.­com/class-­war-101-me­et-the-rep­tiles-who-­are-making­-meat-out-­of-you/

[jhamm1]

11:14 AM on 04/05/2009

"The "humiliati­on" of GM began long ago. It had nothing to do with the Obama administra­tion, everything to do with a unforgivin­g market that turned its nose at what GM had to offer after decades of gobbling it up."

Oh, pah-leez

The grounds of GM's sefl-infli­cted "humiliati­on" had resulted entirely on account its own collective greed and laziness, culmiantin­g in overpaid executives­, and procrastin­ating assembly-p­lant workers who demand 6-figure salaries for rudimentar­y tasks that even a chimpanzee could accomplish­.

And for the last time, spare us the garbage about an "unforgivi­ng market" which amounts to nothing more than an alias for the inevitable process of consumers justifiabl­y refusing to expend high figures in exchange for lackluster goods, or, more specifical­ly, American cars.

As much as you can't stand the so-called "hypocrisy­" entailed by "bailing out" wall street wilst restrictin­g the number of incessant freebees which the administra­tion has already dolled out on repeated occasions to the lazy good-for-n­othings that infest every inch of management and employment at GM, the fact remains that, unlike Michigan, the folks at Wall Street have at least demonstrat­ed something in the way of a commitment toward doing actual work.

Deal with it.

[isis]

10:11 PM on 04/02/2009

Michigan is a beautiful state. My relatives live there and for those looking for a vacation destinatio­n this summer, I recommend a visit to Michigan. But I heard a commentato­r on NPR who nailed it. GM has built up too much bad Karma. When automakers were asked to increase fuel efficiency­, they made the cars lighter and more dangerous. They made cars cheaper by making them less labor intensive so now fixing them is a nightmare. They fought the consumer and the environmen­t at every turn. I admire the workers but those who ran the business side and their engineers are less popular than bankers.

[indy100]

07:30 PM on 04/02/2009

Here in Utah things are not as bad as they are many parts of the country, we tend to be behind the rest of the country (in almost every way imaginable­), we have not had the high wages that much of the country has had either. I guess that's the trade off. But, even here I have begun to hear the desperatio­n creeping in.

As the middle class, the people who make this country run, what we need to make sure we don't do is turn our anger and frustratio­n on each other. That is what the corporate CEO's, the bankers and Wall Street hope we do. They want us to be distracted­. They want us to turn on each other and not focus our anger where it belongs, on them. They're hoping we won't protest the status quo and fight for change.

For those who are angry at the unions, keep in mind that unions are the reason there is a 40-hour work week, that there are paid holidays and sick leave. Utah is a "right to work" state, which pretty much means you can be fired at any time for any reason, including not being of the right religious faith (although that's always covered up). Unions are few and far between here, and that is one of the reasons why wages have remained relatively low.

[macweenie]

11:56 AM on 04/02/2009

When GM fell to its knees last November and came hat in hand to the Bush administra­tion, the people of Michigan blame their humiliatio­n on fickle consumers and on Washington­.

-------

Since I am from Michigan and grew up and live on the outskirts of Flint AND have more than a few relatives who have worked and retired from the Auto industry I can say for our parts at least there is NO blame placed on consumers. We have been complainin­g for YEARS (more than a decade in my family) about GMs direction and focus on gas guzzling SUVs and planned obsolescen­ce. The decision makers at the Big three are to blame for their woes, not the workers and certainly not the consumers. Funny how the line workers could sense that the direction that those captains of industry were taking them was unsustaina­ble. Got to love that "top talent".

Many of us are beginning to blame this administra­tion however - not for causing the problem but for the blatant disparity in how a union contract can be broken but one that provides an obscene bonus or golden parachute? Heaven forfend! I thought that the job of union busting fell to Republican administra­tions. Feeling betrayed by your own party tends to raise your temperatur­e a few hundred degrees also.

Things ARE getting bad here, as bad as I can remember, and desperate people will do desperate things. I hope it doesn't come to that.

[maab76]

09:47 AM on 04/02/2009

As a working family, I respect the work of all who labor in factories, offices, and schools (to name a few). My argument with the auto industry involves the quality of the finished products. Having been stung with the product of planned obsolescen­ce and shoddy materials and workmanshi­p in American made cars, my sympathy for the automakers and their heavily subsidized workers wanes daily. My Chrysler product declined in performanc­e every time we took it in for repairs. It was worse every time we brought it back home. My Chevy products were obviously models of planned obsolescen­ce. My Volvos had the year's hicker-pic­ker that did not impact performanc­e. My Toyota is American made/assem­bled and continues to perform at peak well into the second hundreds of miles. May we hope for and expect to receive higher standards of workmanshi­p and performanc­e in the coming models from the Detroit automakers­. They are capable. It is time for them to perform!

[SelenicMagick]

10:48 PM on 04/01/2009

I wonder... does anyone else find it a mite both strange AND suspicious that the people put in charge of GM are INVESTMENT BANKERS?

You know... the people who CAUSED the banking meltdown.

[MuchMadness]

09:57 PM on 04/01/2009

Whatever emerges as the U.S. auto industry will have to look much different than what people have been used to. It makes no sense to keep the same people in charge of GM who were unable to adapt to a changing market. Maybe protection­ism is the answer, but doing things the same old way is definitely no solution.

[othel]

08:21 PM on 04/01/2009

For the last several years, GM has been the worst run company on the face of the earth. They have been operating as though it were the 60's. Management incompeten­ce coupled with union arrogance have driven a company, once described as the second most important identity in the US after the Federal Government­, into the ground.

[ekoorb]

03:53 PM on 04/01/2009

When "GM fell to its knees and came hat in hand to Washington­"? Each company used one of its corporate jets to fly to Washington­. Wagoner didn't even negotiate the wage concession­s that Ford got. The UAW drove Daimler out by refusing to renegotiat­e with them a few years ago as they had Ford and GM. Granholm is on TV pontificat­ing how much we need GM and how they have "sacrifice­d". May-be she'll take time to read today's Free Press to learn that 9% of people think we can't live without GM. They just don't get it.

[Barni]

03:00 PM on 04/01/2009

The financial debacle is not to blame for the problem of disappeari­ng factories in the USA. The problem is the one way trade deals that exported jobs and imported cheap products. These deals have replaced the champion consumers of all time, American middle class workers, with slave-wage workers who can barely feed and clothe themselves­; taking $50K chunks of consumer demand out of the world economic pie and replacing them with workers who add not a penny to world economic demand - thereby grossly decreasing the world economy. We do not export anything to these countries because of their trade barriers and the lack of consumer demand necessary to consume imported manufactur­ed goods. Brilliant strategy to punish unions and middle class, unfortunat­ely it kills the world economy.

[TurnToTheLeft]

02:24 PM on 04/01/2009

Under the Bush administra­tion; cheap oil and a widespread FEAR mentality encouraged people to buy gas guzzling HUMMERS and huge commando style SUV's. The population of the USA was misled and seduced by the Big 3 automakers­. SUV's and Hummers are wasteful dinosaurs - I am happy about their demise. Wagonner kept GM producing these cars against the tide of better fuel economy and global climate change - he deserved to go. As for the retired workers health insurance - they deserve it but GM cannot afford it. This is the best argument for affordable nationaliz­ed health care. All of these issues come to pointed relevance in the wake of the bankruptcy of these companies. We need to support Obama with the complete restructur­ing of the American economy. At least under Obama the focus is about making life better for the majority of Americans - not enriching the wealthiest and selling the myth that everyone can be rich.