The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 42
Then, as if Washington didn’t already mishandle the GM financial collapse by
giving away our money, the car maker was allowed to escape any responsibility
to common stock shareholders, a know-nothing maybe bond swindler* was appointed “Car Czar,” and a member of Exxon’s Board of Directors was named
as CEO of the restructured General Motors. The company continues to be deluded into thinking that their tired brand names have any real market value, they
have bet their future on becoming a significant player in a giant communist
country, they’re chasing an electric technology fantasy that is still decades away
from being meaningful, and they have pretty much abandoned the flex-fuel position that they spent several years and untold dollars trying to establish by finally building more powerful cars that used less gasoline. I was present at numerous GM presentations when they pushed and pushed and pushed E85 and
flex-fuel vehicles. If it was a wrong direction – and perhaps it was since GM has
made so many wrong decisions – then why are many of the executives that
were involved still with the company? Why did they bring Bob Lutz back into the
fold, again?
Just Good Capitalism
As a devoted capitalist and marketing guy I have to say that the GM action in
seeking an inexpensive, exclusive fuel to power the growth of the automobile
age was at first blush a great example of what capitalism is about. The problem
is that capitalism allowed to run amuck is nearly as bad as unchecked socialism.
It may be a convenient inexpensive capitalist idea to dump waste materials from
a chemical plant into the river that flows behind the factory, but if the water is
also used for drinking by the community down-river who you hope will buy your
products, the free-market idea becomes a dead-market reality. In effect, this
was the result of General Motors’ patented process as the legacy of the leaded
gasoline process continues to plague us.
Chained to Oil
We in America and in all industrial nations of the world, no longer “drink” from
an unpolluted spring; we haven’t for more than half a century. We are addicted
to using fuel that robs each and every one of us of our hard-earned money.
What’s more, over-hyped worrisome economic or political news about oil, and
the greedy cycle of oil commodity speculation keep all segments of the financial
markets teetering on the brink of disaster. The richest and most wonderful country in the world has become just another debtor-nation. 50% or more of our
national debt is owed to other countries to pay for the oil that we helped discover, subsidize, and then protect through two world wars and several regional
