That was Charlie Wilson, Eisenhower’s SecDef and former head of GM in the 40s!
The quote was “What’s good for GM is good for the nation.”
Charlie must be rolling in his grave about now.
Thanks for correcting that. I still believe he was correct in that statement.
The corollary, of course, is that what's bad for GM is bad for the nation. We know that the UAW is what's driven GM and the other big car companies close to oblivion. They'll do the same thing to the whole nation, if they're allowed to.
I can only hope that GM will come out stronger and leaner after Chapter 11 restructuring. It's anyone's guess though, with Obama at the wheel.
Drucker too.
“Choo Choo” Charlie Wilson was one of the kingpins in the criminal enterprise that placed General Motors on its road to disaster.
In that heyday — and I remember it well — as my uncle was the plant engineer of the large Fisher Body plant in Flint,
Wilson and his successors capitulated to virtually EVERY serious demand of Reuther and his cohorts...essentially passing on the increased labor costs on to an unwitting public. Reuther played the Big Three like a violin.
However, there was NO competition to challenge such abhorrent management malfeasance.
It was not until approximately 1956 — when European auto manufacturers were finally structured to make a run at the American market — that the threat of competition reared its head. VW, Renault and Morris all peddled their bare-boned cars at the same price — $1640 — and they all did 30 MPG; and ran, and ran, and ran, for next to nothing. A huge market developed overnight.
Detroit did NOT take this ominous threat seriously — and the rest is history. As an aside, it was not until approximately 10 year later that the Japanese did their number on Detroit, with the Datsun and Toyota saturation of the market. By that time the European game had run its course, except for a refined VW product line.
The Japanese marketing successes essentially rang the death knell on Detroit; however, the Detroit snake still thrashed in its death throes for these many years, even after its head was severed by the labor cost and product quality disparities, twenty years prior.
Very respy, dk/coro