What's Good For GM?
The New York Times asks:
So how did the famous 1953 quotation from the former General Motors president Charles E. Wilson — that what was good for our country was good for G.M., and vice versa — become a dated notion to so many people?
The answer?
The carmakers, for example, fought hard in recent years against two Congressional efforts to raise fuel economy standards, at a time when Americans were struggling with more expensive gasoline and had become more environmentally conscious.
Regardless of your position on CAFE standards, it’s hard to believe Americans are somehow angry at GM because of them. This is a case of journalistic “projection,” in which the journalist projects his or her personal feelings onto the public at large.So why has a GM lost its clout? I don’t know the answer, but one guess would be the unions. A poll in February found 51 percent of voters thought unions were too powerful, and no industry is more associated with unions than the auto industry.It might also be simple economics. Fewer people own American cars and are financial invested in the industry, financially or otherwise. The nostalgia attached to American cars has less power over the public than it did.I’m sure there are dozens of other reasons GM is no longer popular in American eyes, but their environmental track record surely is at the bottom of the list.
