Auto Supplier Tells GM Where To Go

This message says a lot about our need to stand up and be responsible. Hopefully it will get a wide distribution.
This is one of the greatest responses to the requests for bailout money I have seen thus far.

As a supplier for the Big 3, this man received a letter from the President of GM North America requesting support for the bail out program. His response is well written, and has to make you proud of a local guy who tells it like it is.

This letter and Mr. Knox are real.. check it out at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp


This is GM's letter:

Dear Employees & Suppliers,

Congress and the current Administration will soon determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis.

As an employee or supplier, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.

Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.

Troy Clarke
President,
General Motors North America


Response from: Gregory Knox, Pres.
Knox Machinery Company
Franklin, Ohio

Gentlemen:

In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America.

Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah," Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream." Believe me folks, The dream is over!

This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities. This dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.

Don't even think about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle, and countless other automotive OEM's throughout the Midwest, during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not."

You're right Mr. Clarke, it's not JUST management. How about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive.

(We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?)

Do you folks really not know about this stuff?!? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke!

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit.

I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money."

"Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems," but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and the following very important thing would happen. Where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work if we would only let it work."

But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what is really happening.

But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams.
Yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it.

Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country? How can that be??? Let's see. Fuel efficient. Listening to customers. Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul.

Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr.. W Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning. Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy." Efficient front and back offices. Non union environment.

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts.

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh. Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.

Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied. "We really might not do it in a year or in four." Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office.

Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks. That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000. People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits. That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year. We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe. That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home.

Let the market correct itself folks - it will.. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God..

Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to heart.


Gregory J. Knox, President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005


MY RESPONSE:


Dear Mr. Knox:

You are certainly entitled to your opinions, which right also allows me to have mine. I think you're full of shit.

To begin, you make statements in your opening paragraph concerning 'politicians and the Big 3' which, to be gratuitous, are nonsensical. To what, exactly, entitlements have politicians claimed for themselves? Can you enumerate them? Likewise with the the automakers, UAW and the 'mentality' of entitlement in the form of a plague sweeping the country. And please clarify, if you will, what is meant by the 'magic wand' you mention as being waved by PRESIDENT Obama...what exactly is this 'magic wand' comprised of? My best recollection of the president's remarks concerning the economy were words to the effect that it was not going to be easy to overcome the mistakes and errors, greed and incompetence of the past 8 years. but rather it was going to be a tough, hard struggle. I heard nothing of a 'magic wand', and I challenge you to prove one iota of an Obama 'magic wand'. Mini demagogues should better prepare before shooting their mouths off and spewing things created out of thin air. OK, so you're a conservative with a big 'C', say it and stop with the pedantic bullshit already.

You go on to bash the 'lazy bums' of labor and the incompetence of management. Of course, as a salesman, you qualify as an expert. Needless to say, when I called on architects such as Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for years, I too could have designed the John Hancock building in Chicago and a friend, Margie Phelps, who detailed doctors for 35 years while working for Phizer, now is a brain surgeon.

In your purity of rightfulness you mention the 'brilliant economist' Alan Beaulieu, and his apparent unwillingness to give 'a penny' of bailout money to banks. Trouble is, Beaulieu is not a formally trained economist any more than I am, though I have a masters Degree from the Instituto de Allende, but i don't hold myself out as an 'economist.' Further, while the sun will rise again in the east, I hear no alternative suggestions to diverting a world wide financial melt down from either you or Beaulieu. You know nothing of economic theory from any accepted school of economic thought whatsoever. You skip over what Warren Buffett describes as our financial Pearl Harbor with Beaulieu stating "....would cause short term problems' as if we were in the midst of a garden variety recession. You're an economic jerk.

Continuing your self-righteous bullshit, you mention that "...the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work...." I haven't come across much of this. I have come across much that says enforced regulation is in the cards...and I believe this is so. You, Knox, are in the machine tool business and surely must realize that the most efficient, high speed, creative tools extant today have to be regulated...that while they have RPMs and capacities that the layman can't comprehend, they have to be controlled for maximum efficiency, lest they run amok. True?
You also speak of "...nationalizing..." as if it were dengue fever...forgetting that it is nothing new in American history going back to the nation's railroads and banks...when they were indeed the very aortas of the economy. As much as you don't know about economics, you know less about history.

Your academic business mentor may have been Deming, mine was Drucker.

Your having six children proves nothing more than you, or someone, had sex with your wife at least six times. It is less an indication of sageness than the father of one stating that he didn't want to screw himself out of a place at the table. Parenting and government similarity? Please, spare us your nuggets of imbecility. Orwell came up with the term 'big brother' for government, now we have Knox to thank for 'father government.'

RE: $750,000 house in Florida, border jumpers free health care, forklift $85,000 incomes, Wal-Mart and Chinese goods, $50,000 couple buying $485,000 home. Who the hell are you to tell anyone what house to buy? To tell Wal-Mart or anyone else how to live their lives or conduct their business? Where do you get off with your sanctimonious bullshit? You're nothing but a parasite in business...selling things that someone else makes to someone else that operates them. What do you contribute to sociey...a measley little pimple on the ass of progress living off other people's creativity, risk capital and labor (did you steal customers and prospects from your prior employer to start your business?)...the factors of a capitalistic system...while you do nothing but serve as a bump along the road of distribution. You know nothing of pain in a societal sense, you offer NO proposals, people do not have "patriotic" (how many foreign brands of machinery do you represent? you're a hypocrite) work ethics and our standard of living isn't even in the top ten of world countries...you are not even a messenger because you don't have a message...nothing but self-serving, narcissistic bullshit. Knox, you're an asshole.

Stimulus Bill

Harvey, you posed a great question...wasteful spending in the Stimulus Bill, "pork" in the argot of the political trade, and the ostensible objection to the proposed Obama bill. As I do better literately than verbally, I'm going to re-state my take on your question...if for no other reason than I believe the written word carries far more weight of credibility than does the spoken word, particularly when that word is only marginally comprehended amidst the din of a raucous tavern.

Inasmuch as I consider the crisis the country is facing is tantamount to catastrophe, hardship, pain and ruin beyond anything we have ever experienced in our history..making time of the essence...that Republicans would obfuscate, splutter and obstruct, from the obvious standpoint of self-serving partisanship, can only be judged, IMO, reprehensible and downright unpatriotic. To qualify my point, I would refresh the fact that the failed policies of the past, Republican, years...starting with the repeal of Glass-Steagle by country bumpkin economist Phil Gramm..wherein regulations of our financial system that served us well for decades, were overruled in favor of "free Marketers" and laissez faire proponents, which allowed Sears to sell stocks, bonds and insurance policies right next to refrigerators and claw hammers...and gave Wall Street carte blanche, which resulted in the creation of, not tangible products, but huge fees in paper financial instruments that even the creators of them could not sensibly explain to the likes of our greatest businessman, Warren Buffett. Not only was the Street allowed to run "free", the mantra of the greedy, but restraints on leverage and reserves were abated, then not even enforced by a government that was simply incompetent and incapable of governing in any area, let alone the financial sector. The Bush administration let the fox in the hen house. Fact or liberal partisan fiction?

When the financial system crashed...the Republican Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson..former GS COB and CEO with an annual income of $40+M for years from the very people on whose behalf he was now making fervent pleas, and the Bush appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, called a meeting of Congressional leaders...DEMOCRATS all...and in a matter of fucking HOURS had agreement to give the heretofore wealthiest investment brokerages and banks in the world, $350 BILLION, not only with no strings attached...but with virtual czar powers to Paulson...a single man was going to determine who got how much of an unprecedent amount of taxpayer money...because the DEMOCRATIC leaders realized the situation was dire and time was of the essence. They did not equivocate...they did not go before TV cameras and raise bullshit about Reagan's deficit legacy..or Bush's total lack of any leadership in the crisis...they said, "do what you have to do, Hank." And it was done. And the DEMOCRATS went before the public and explained why it had to be done as articulately as any Republican...and more so, because they were leaders thinking of the good of the country...and not a wonderful opportunity to castigate the administration for bringing the mess about in the first place. It didn't solve the provlem, nor was it intended as a panacea, but it staved off armageddon and bought time until cool heads could prevail and longer term plans devised.

Now? Now, with the whole country imperiled and on the edge of a financial abyss...we see assholes like Vitter, McCain, Lindsey, Boehner and others spouting the hackneyed old Republican saws of "wasteful spending" and "cut taxes"...fucking shibboleths with no purpose other than to cover their asses with their faithful back home...so next election when, hopefully, we are past this millenial crisis and fighting solvable inflation, he can say, "I told you so." This is not statesman ledership. This is bullshit partisanship evidenced by partisan votes, to a man, by Republicans that have amnesia to the extent that their party, whilst having the hat trick of government, fucked things up...and, besides, they LOST!! To think that not a single Representative..or Senator...of the opposition party could agree with the majority party on such a momentous matter affecting the entire country, is beyond mathematical calculation in its absurdity...especially when, only months before, the opposition party of that time supported the majority's programs, without hesitation or folderol, and ironically, it was a no debate approval of the biggest "spend" give-away in history!!

Our economy is 70% driven by consumers...and with trillions of wealth from home equities, IRAs, pension funds, literally evaporated...people not only voluntarily stop spending, they can't spend. Arm chair economists bemoan the "living beyond our means" and "we are all to blame", blah, blah, but there is a difference in supporting even excessive consumer debt when mom and dad both have good jobs and $50K equity in real estate vs one so-so job and no equity to leverage. Businesses, without orders, utility capacity of 70% or less and sales projected to continue to erode...are not going to increase capital spending..they are going to curtail it, shut existing facilities, cut costs, work off inventories and cut labor..their biggest expense...to the bone...and a vicious spiral begins with disinflation whirling into dreaded deflation...economists', the world over, worst nighmare. With the Fed's classic tool for combatting economic slowdowns, reducing interest rates, totally used up...and Fed Treasury buys not making a dent...what is the answer? How does a massive economy get its life blood, consumers, to spend money in this scenario of pending economic doom? As sure as government is charged with military defense of the country, so too is it charged with protecting the country's life blood, its economy. Unless, of course, the country is willing to emulate the ruination and insolvency of, say, Iceland...a microcosm of a nation's ruined economic health for years to come.

We are experiencing wage cuts not seen since the depression, unemployment is at or near double digits in California, the largest state and barometer for the country, our once vaunted auto industry is collapsing in front of our eyes, retailers are slashing prices to move inventory yet sales continue to decline, bankruptcies are escalating, commercial mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt defaults are rising...and disinflation is rapidly looking like deflation...which will result in debt being more of an onerous burden which leads to more defaults, more liquidations, layoffs and the cycle feeds on itself with the only recourse we have left to stop the spiraling is government...who or what else can do it? Only govt can deal with such a problem...and in a consumer economy, only spending...whether it be on condoms, to artists to paint, writers to write, kids to play, the sick be treated or building a god damn bridge, doesn't matter.

Obama's only mistake regarding getting a massive amount of spendable money into the hands of consumers was his bipartisan approach to Republicans...coddling their favor with an open, outstretched hand..listening to their bullshit and empowering them to the point that the assholes are afraid to deny or cross the hateful, divisive pig, Rush. He should have taken a cue from Bush when he had Congress...and rammed his program down their throats.