Stop Your Whining

If the current business atmosphere were a Monopoly game (does seem like they thought it was as it was not their money) this is about the time my father would have charged into the room, told us to stop whining, and confiscated the game, "If you cannot play nicely with each other nobody plays."

Evidently President Obama did the adult diplomatic version of that in a White House conference with bankers. He told them to work together. I wonder if there was an "or else" attached. The United States can take the Monopoly game away in a number of ways from strict new regulations to nationalizing the banks. Whatever else the President said the bankers left the meeting voicing approval of his financial plans.

Course the banks are not the only whiners in this game gone horribly wrong while GW was calling the plays. There are the auto companies that refused to build greener cars and fueled our appetities for more and bigger. While of course the UAW (no favorite of mine after ten years working building auto plants) kept upping the Union contract requirements and priced the US out of the internation auto market. In this recent effort for the big three to make themselves economically viable the UAW have been some of the biggest whiners. Shut up you do have jobs. Currently. That could change.

The whiners I hate at the most are the Republicans and those Democrats currying favor with the voters in 2010. "You have an alternate plan?" my father would ask when we would whine about the length of the walk back or the difficulty of erecting the tent in a drenching rain. We hardly ever did. And I have noticed that none of the Republicans that blithely voted us into this mess have any alternate plans on getting us out. So shut up and row the same direction as the rest of those in the lifeboat and shut up unless you have something constructive to say or a good upbeat song to sing.

Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore might be nice. And those Fargo citizens working so tirelessly together to save their town from the rising flood waters of the Red River could embrace that theme.

So bankers, car manufacturers, UAW, Republicans, and naysayers take a tip from Fargo. When the water is about to top the levees it is time to work together with no whining.

A Modest Proposal

I used to work for an international construction firm that had a long standing relationship renovating auto factories for one of the big three in the country. One of the plants I worked on in our capacity as construction managers had been converted to make tanks during WWII, and another had made bombers in the same period.

So why is it we should just give money to Ford and GM? Why not take the same amount of money and have them re-tool a couple of their plants to make railroad cars and engines? And the company that makes their bucket seats could make comfortable passenger car seats. The stamping plants for engine parts could make train wheels or retool to make rails. This makes so much sense on so many levels government probably will not even consider it.

Level one is that big business always bemoans welfare to the poor. Don't they always say, "let them get jobs." Well, I think that applies to the big three. Can't sell cars because the poor are not working because we are in a recession then don't make cars. Make trains.

Due to the fuel crisis and our need to be more green and less dependent upon foreign oil more freight companies have been piggybacking their trailers between major cities rather than trucking them. As I reported in an early blog this has caused some issue with trains because of aging track and cars. We need more capacity to ship more stuff.

Our reliance on airplanes for travel is also silly. Planes really waste fuel. And the contrails from the number of planes in the skies at anyone time are believed to be increasing the effects of global warming. More of us need to take trains for those between town jaunts to visit Aunt Helen. And if the SUV could come with us on a specially built train car we would not need a rental car at our destination. Fifty cars riding on a train are not burning fuel wastefully and contributing to greenhouse gases like the same 50 cars on the interstate.

Transporting cars on trains for long distance travel also reduces wear and tear on our aging interstate system until much needed repairs of the infrastructure can be effected. Maybe we can use out-of-work United Auto Workers who will not compromise on their benefit packages. (Does this sound like CEO's and golden parachutes?)

So no bailout money for auto companies without a plan for them to produce something we can use. Let's make trains.