Detroit is in shambles. In past months, Americans have watched in awe as auto company CEO's have flown humbly to Washington on commercial airlines (yuk, gag!), hats in hand, begging for bail-out money. Is Detroit finally conceding that it needs to manufacture small, fuel-efficient cars in order to survive?
Maybe that's the least of their problems. A more troublesome question comes out of Japan. In a financial blog today, Anthony Mirhaydari writes of a cultural shift in attitude among the Japanese people, causing a decreased interest in buying cars, and a preference for spending on services and travel. He quotes one young Japanese man:
"I don't believe that having more things enriches you; if you stay happy in your soul then you can be happy without money."
These are seditious words that cut to the very quick of American economic philosophy. Mirhaydari continues:
Even more damaging is the belief harbored by Makino and his friends that cars aren't reflections of identity, taste, or income but are nothing more than a tool for transportation.
An automobile as a mere "tool for transportation"? This is the concept that Detroit has spent billions in advertising over the decades to eradicate. God forbid that these alien thoughts should ever cross the Pacific and infect our own society.
Mirhaydari does note dissimilarities between Japanese and American societies, however, and advises us to remain cautiously optimistic. As one comment to his blog observes, there have been times in past years when Detroit has shown admirable foresight, foresight that will now pay off for the auto companies:
My mom was alive when she saw GM and Ford buy and tear down the trolley system that most towns had. Part of the problem of the Great Depression was the destruction of mass transit by the car makers. We do not have a mass transit system in place because the car companies knew if we had one fewer people would buy cars.
Mirhaydari suggests that in 2009 the American infrastructure of highways, mass transit, and railroads is so inferior to that of Japan (and of Europe, I might add) that we'll probably remain heavily dependent on Detroit's products for the foreseeable future.
Why don't I feel happier and more relieved?
------------------
*Japanese for "demotorization"
2 comments:
Oh noes! America without an automobile obsession? That'll make us like...well, like Europe! Heaven forbid!
Western Europe -- The right wing's worst nightmare.
If everyone has decent health care, excellent transportation, good education -- how can you show everyone you're obscenely rich?
Post a Comment