Drive Off Into The Sunset

I am a fan of the automobile industry. The US automobile industry provided the fabled good job at good wages and many a family were raised on that paycheck. That was then, and this is now. The truth is the industry for decades has manufactured cars that they wanted to sell not what the consumer wanted to buy. When Volkswagen, Toyota and Datsun (now Nissan) came onto the scene the US manufactures laughed. They were after all the big 3. Now Toyota is the worlds leading car manufacturer. You can say what you like but you cannot deny the company is well run and makes fine automobiles. More importantly in business, they make a profit.

If the big three file for bankruptcy what will happen is any body's guess. I believe they will be forced to deal with the bloated salary's, trim cost, in the case of GM drop a line or two of cars but, they will still produce automobiles. A bail out now I believe, just postpones the inevitable. They have been poorly managed for years. Chrysler was saved once and here they are now asking to be saved again. Look at the airline industry. There have been major carriers that have gone bankrupt and some gone forever. However you can still catch a flight and go anywhere you need to go. In a lot of cases you get there for less money. The US automobile industry will not go away. It is time that they take responsibility for the mismanagement of the very companies they now want us to save.

We cannot bail them out because in the end, no money is enough to save them from themselves.

Happy Fourth of July

The Halloween decorations have just come down, the leaves are still on the ground and the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner has not even been bought, yet it is now officially Christmas season. Can someone explain to me how this has happened? I am not knocking Christmas, but each year it comes so much earlier than the next I am almost expecting the fourth of July fireworks to spell out Merry Christmas against the darkened sky.

Are retailers so desperate for sales they think hearing Christmas carols by Nov 1st will get you in that shopping mood. Dear retailers, your ruining the holiday. The fact is by mid December most if not all people will be tired of Christmas and will view it like a bad day at the office and hoping it ends quickly. Whatever happened to the "Christmas Season" which normally began the day after thanksgiving with the annual "lets see how many fools we can get into our store by 3am" shopping extravaganza.

It is sad to think that Christmas, perhaps the last holiday with some religious meaning for most everyone who celebrates it, has now been transformed into a giant white sale. The last holiday where everyone on that day acts just a bit different. It is perhaps old fashion to say it but we are a bit different on that day. We are a bit kinder, quicker to forgive and slower to find offense. It is one day a year but it was a special day. Now it is a reason to sell us what we can not afford to buy, and that pressure makes us forget all the meaningful things that are free.

I understand it is not going to stop. Soon the "back to school" sales will involve Christmas. Laugh now, but that day will be here soon enough. Meanwhile this third week of November my neighbor has put enough lights on his lawn to resemble a municipal airport in most towns. I can only hope he goes broke paying for this. So thank you retailers for allowing us to get this eight week jump on Christmas.

So, on this day the three wise men brought gifts. which included a fifty percent off coupon......