Two stories with issues on opposite ends of their spectrum:
* The high gas prices throughout the country has either caused: (A) a general panic over makers of gas-guzzling SUVs, who say they may never recover production levels to their 2003-04 highs; or (B) a rolling of the eyes and a no-panic mode.
Whatever happened to good-old off-road vehicles? Back in the day, you could slightly modify a truck body in order to make it off-road compatible. The SUV is more a luxury & oversize option to what was made before. Do I, as a single person with no dependents & only one roommate, need all that extra space?
Absolutely not. In fact, if you armed me with, say, GM's top seller (the Hummer I), I would go against the grain of those who swell with ownership pride. I'd be embarassed. It's just too high-class an SUV for me, too much wasted space, and too damn ugly. Heck, I don't even like regular pick-up trucks, because I consider an exposed truck bed to be wasted space. For a vehicle to be beneficial to me, I need covered storage space or passenger space. If I buy something and it either rots due to outdoor elements or flies out the truck bed onto the road, it doesn't do me any good.
But the high gas prices are the main culprit why sales, especially re-sale values, of these SUVs are way down; twenty percent in some cases. Pundits like to point to this as proof the automakers don't know what they're doing, and that they will fail without some major production adjustment.
It's not that automakers don't know what they're doing; otherwise we'd have CEOs replaced every month. With all the bureaucracies involved, however, it takes more time for changes to be implemented than what they would like. The result is that they're burned with a surging inventory that is fast losing value to its customer base.
Time to panic or no? There's plenty of room for concern, but turnarounds have happened in stranger ways before. At least I know I won't be adding to the combined misery by purchasing one of these, and bankrupting myself trying to keep it on the road.
* Jennifer Granholm or Richard DeVos for Michigan governor?
I laugh when the incumbent Granholm says that her plan is working, and the people need to practice patience. Every day, the newspapers say the economy is sinking & taking us along with it. Unlike the SUV issue, I participate in the local economy every day, and I know when it's taking a hit. There's been three years to address this issue, and it's not been taken care of.
If you consider the running of a state government as a business, why not get a businessman to do it? DeVos headed Amway for a few years, and did pretty well. He goes against my party lines, but isn't it sometimes the best thing to vote for who you think will do the job best?
Why two parties can't even agree on a simple point like that sums up the nature of politics as a whole, and why it hasn't interested me in a career.
I'm just looking for results for the little man - before he turns into a speck of dust.
