Big gain, local pain
This is why it's so hard for government to make the hard choices on any number of challenging issues - the very real, large-scale benefits for the nation as a whole always come at the expense of a particular few on the local level.
GM announced yesterday that it will close four of its plants - including the one just down the road in Janesville - by 2010. Normally I'd be cheering the decision, based as it is in the American consumer's fading interest in the monstrously huge vehicles that have been GM's trade in stock for the last decade. It's a good sign that where personal virtue and concern for the environment aren't enough to affect a change, at long last there are economic incentives and disincentives that seem to be getting the job done.
There's no reason for the vast majority of drivers to be mounting these behemoths for their daily commute. My car (which is really not all that small) regularly vanishes in the parking lot, hidden in the canyons winding between the massive SUVs and pickups. On the freeway between E-ville and Gretchen's, I'm often cut off by vehicles weighing twice what mine does, with a single person in the cabin, working the wheel and the pedals as though he were Dale, Jr. - or maybe Evel Knievel. All the while, burning through irreplaceable fossil fuels at a rate that makes my head spin, and coughing out greenhouse gases like there's no tomorrow (and maybe helping to ensure the aptness of that simile).
It's no secret how I feel about all these large vehicles - unless you're running a farm or have some legitimate need for the hauling capacity they offer, there's really no excuse for them. They should never have become mainstream passenger vehicles in the first place. I couldn't be happier that Americans are abandoning their SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient wheels. As much as I feel the pinch every time I make The Big Drive to see my wife, I fundamentally agree with Thomas Friedman: $4 gas is a good thing for America in the grand scheme of things, if we're only smart enough to use it to our advantage.
So we've got an instance of the market forcing GM's hand, where virtue and common sense had previously been unable to upend the profit motive. Hip, hip, hooray! Right?
Except it's hard to be too cheery about this development, when a lot of good jobs are going to be vanishing from our local market here in about a year. As a pastor, I know how hard it's been for people to find work. It's frustrating to think that there will be a few thousand more suddenly on the market. I wonder how many of them will eventually need to come to me or one of my colleagues, seeking assistance from the churches? How many will we be able to help?
Human sin leads to human pain, and there's been a whole lot of human sin (greed, envy, callousness, pride, lousy stewardship, and so forth) tied up in the Big Vehicle fad, both behind the wheel and behind the corporate desk. Could the plants that are being closed have been shifted over to some other, more sensible product before things got this far? It's a question we'll be left pondering here in southern Wisconsin for a long time.
The benefits of GM's announcement will be broad, and I'm glad for them... but I feel for the workers who are sacrificing their jobs today so that we'll have a cleaner, more fuel-efficient tomorrow.
GM announced yesterday that it will close four of its plants - including the one just down the road in Janesville - by 2010. Normally I'd be cheering the decision, based as it is in the American consumer's fading interest in the monstrously huge vehicles that have been GM's trade in stock for the last decade. It's a good sign that where personal virtue and concern for the environment aren't enough to affect a change, at long last there are economic incentives and disincentives that seem to be getting the job done.
There's no reason for the vast majority of drivers to be mounting these behemoths for their daily commute. My car (which is really not all that small) regularly vanishes in the parking lot, hidden in the canyons winding between the massive SUVs and pickups. On the freeway between E-ville and Gretchen's, I'm often cut off by vehicles weighing twice what mine does, with a single person in the cabin, working the wheel and the pedals as though he were Dale, Jr. - or maybe Evel Knievel. All the while, burning through irreplaceable fossil fuels at a rate that makes my head spin, and coughing out greenhouse gases like there's no tomorrow (and maybe helping to ensure the aptness of that simile).
It's no secret how I feel about all these large vehicles - unless you're running a farm or have some legitimate need for the hauling capacity they offer, there's really no excuse for them. They should never have become mainstream passenger vehicles in the first place. I couldn't be happier that Americans are abandoning their SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient wheels. As much as I feel the pinch every time I make The Big Drive to see my wife, I fundamentally agree with Thomas Friedman: $4 gas is a good thing for America in the grand scheme of things, if we're only smart enough to use it to our advantage.
So we've got an instance of the market forcing GM's hand, where virtue and common sense had previously been unable to upend the profit motive. Hip, hip, hooray! Right?
Except it's hard to be too cheery about this development, when a lot of good jobs are going to be vanishing from our local market here in about a year. As a pastor, I know how hard it's been for people to find work. It's frustrating to think that there will be a few thousand more suddenly on the market. I wonder how many of them will eventually need to come to me or one of my colleagues, seeking assistance from the churches? How many will we be able to help?
Human sin leads to human pain, and there's been a whole lot of human sin (greed, envy, callousness, pride, lousy stewardship, and so forth) tied up in the Big Vehicle fad, both behind the wheel and behind the corporate desk. Could the plants that are being closed have been shifted over to some other, more sensible product before things got this far? It's a question we'll be left pondering here in southern Wisconsin for a long time.
The benefits of GM's announcement will be broad, and I'm glad for them... but I feel for the workers who are sacrificing their jobs today so that we'll have a cleaner, more fuel-efficient tomorrow.
Labels: current events, local
posted by Bob at
4:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home