Wednesday, November 12, 2008

How do I become "too big to fail"?

So I am tired of hearing about these banks and automakers that are "too big to fail." I have to disagree, no company is too big. I know Nancy Pelosi would think I am heartless because I don't care if 240,000 people lose their jobs (see this link for her "concern"). I do care but I also think people are better than that. I don't think that just because a major automaker fails people are going to just stop working. Those people who are building cars or working at banks well there are probably many of them who are very good at their jobs, so they can start their own small businesses. This is how innovation works. Both the Banking and the Auto manufacturing indutries have been wanting an overhaul, and now government (that includes congress and the executive branch) wants to stop that from happening. Why?
I know it's tough to let people loose jobs but that is how the economy renews and becomes better. In my opinion it is obvious that the business models for automakers and banks were outdated, or maybe they were never intended to be profitable? So how do we fix a broken industry, with either an outdated or poor business model? Let it die and start over.
I would hate to see so many people loose their jobs but I would hate, even more, to see us propegate a bad business model just to keep people employed.
I think most people would agree that economically based businesses have an end goal of making money. If a business is not able to accomplish that end objective with current business strategies then an overhaul is required, sometimes that means abandoning the old business model. In the case of automakers I think unions are a serious challange to the success of that industry, why is Subaru so efficient? No unions. Banks I think just got greedy, the senior executives were (still are in many circumstances) living well beyond the means of the company, on the company's dime. So scrap the old business model and come up with something better, surely this is possible. I don't have all the answers, but I am sure there are probably at least a hundred or more people in that 240,000 that can figure out a way to create a better automobile, and actually sell it for a profit.
Alright well that's enough for today

2 comments:

ilikewinter said...

Hey, that's how the church worked. You can't fix it when it's broken. You need a whole new organization, a return to basics and working from the ground up again.

Sounds good to me.

Megan D. said...

I agree. This makes sense. Scary, but it might have to be done.