Thoughts on the Big Three

A nugget from Thomas Friedman's latest column:

Over the years, Detroit bosses kept repeating: “We have to make the cars people want.” That’s why they’re in trouble. Their job is to make the cars people don’t know they want but will buy like crazy when they see them. I would have been happy with my Sony Walkman had Apple not invented the iPod. Now I can’t live without my iPod. I didn’t know I wanted it, but Apple did. Same with my Toyota hybrid.

That's what gets me about the leaders of corporate Detroit. For all those years they held off innovation as better-managed foreign companies ate up more and more of the market...and then they continued to do nothing about it. They pushed failing to invest in future technologies as a competitive strategy and just muddling through as a vision. Those who challenged them to do more were castigated as nanny-staters that would rather save an owl than help keep Joe Sixpack's paycheck coming. But look who was right. The motor city morons have jeopardized millions of jobs and billions in wealth while, once we make it out of this recession, green development looks to be the savior of the global economy.