Failures in Detroit

It's a sad sight to watch the three American car companies all located in Detroit (Ford, GM, Chrysler) in the shape they're in and on the brink of failure.

Even if they were "bailed out" (and we've seen how well that's helped the markets lately, can you tell I'm being sarcastic?) it would only be a short term infusion and they'd probably go right back into the same condition.

Ford, GM, and Chrysler failed for three reasons: (1) Uncompetitive product in the market place until it was too late, (2) Union greed, (3) backwards healthcare benefits to employees.

Uncompetitive Product -- who had the hybrid first? Ford and GM, or Toyota and Honda? Toyota and Honda of course. Which brands are generally considered by most people to be smoother rides, better power, and last longer with fewer problems? Even if it's not true, most people will just generally assume the Japanese brands are better. And Ford and GM and Chrysler didn't do much to fight that or improve from where they were. Combine that with an environment of rising gas prices over the past 6 years and still marketing HUMMERS in spite of that, and it's a recipe for failure.

Union Greed -- I don't have anything against unions, or at least not the concept thereof, but there is a line and a point of going too far. When you've got unions at every plant that just keep demanding more and more when they're already making a very above average wage, of course that's going to hurt the car companies. Japanese companies generally don't have problems with Labor Unions for one reason: They treat their employees well and genuinely listen to them. The Japanese spend 5 times more money and time training new employees than Americans do. American companies don't have as motivated of employees so their workers just mindlessly go to work everyday in routine fashion, demanding more and more hoping to be happy with more wages but they aren't because lack of money is not the source of their dissatisfaction with their jobs.

Healthcare plans -- The average American corporation could stand to learn a thing or two from WHOLE FOODS MARKET. Rather than providing low deductible low co-pay plans to their workers, they provide their employees with high deductible healthplans, COMBINED with matching Health Savings accounts, just like the way many employers match on 401ks. So the employees are free to use their HSA funds whereever they like, like acupuncturists, massage therapists, advanced testing labs, etc. Because these high-deductible plans are inexpensive, the employer doesn't have to worry about dramatic price increases from year to year. They also force the cost of medicine to go down because the employee bears the majority of the cost, they will now go looking for the hospital or doctor who provides the lowest cost of a given procedure.