Friday
Time was when Ford was the model for corporatism and seen as a template for the State.
But that was before we got to a situation where Communist China's state media castigates the US federal government for wasting money on welfare programs and over-borrowing.
I like the fact that Ford let Chris choose his own words to explain why he wouldn't buy a government bail-out car. Very Post-Fordist.
I was surprised (and pleased) to see that ad, too. I'm not in the market for a new car now, and am not likely to be soon, but if and when I do buy one it most certainly will not be a GM or Chrysler product. I think this spoof ad says it best.
Posted by Laird at September 16, 2011 06:17 PM
I agree, I would never buy from bailed out companies, Ford for sure I would consider, but I'd also think about those other great American car companies, Toyota, Nissan and Honda.
But good luck to Ford, that is for sure.
Posted by Fraser Orr at September 17, 2011 12:40 AM
Even before Jimmy Hoffa jr. made his "Get the SOBs" remark, I knew I would not buy a car that supported the UAW. Because the UAW supports those I'm against. I bought a Mazda 3. Everyday I'm glad I did.
Posted by Pat McCann at September 17, 2011 01:16 AM
I'm surprised that the media hasn't given Chris the full "Joe the Plumber" treatment. We may learn (for example) that in high school he was caught smoking cigarettes out behind the gym, or that he has a library book overdue.
Posted by Ernie G at September 18, 2011 04:49 PM
Of course when Ford was inventing new ways of doing things it was not "Fordist" at all - nor was Henry Ford (the first) the only wild eccentric there.
Read G.G.s books about the Ford Company (the "Wild Wheel" and so on), both its rise and its last real wild period (World War II - where alone of all nations on Earth the United States was in SOME ways [certainly not in others] actually LESS regulated than it had been before World War II).
The "Fordism" of Ford is a destructive myths - a myth that even Ford executives (by the 1950s) started to believe themsleves.
And when the started to believe in "scientific management" (lots of layers and lots of meetings - and no wild eccentrics) the company stopped producing interesting things - and just became a small "c" conservative company.
The sort of company that the U.A.W. liked (and likes for the U.A.W. is still just as much run by a bunch of shits as it has always been).
However, (from somewhere - perhaps because a Ford family member was still involved in the company that carried his own name) Ford surprised everyone by (just - at the last moment) turing down the bailout.
Somewhat to their own surprise (as well as that as of everyone else) Ford showed that they still had some "pride", self respect is actually the better description.
The high managers of General Motors have no self respect (none - their souls have rotted totally), they are like the managers from General Electric (the people who when told that their subdivision "Universal" had made a series of films "Resident Evil" which mixed wild science fiction with a company that was just made up of power crazed destroyers - actually rather LIKED being seen this way).
No doubt Ford has many problems (not just the UAW - but regulations that force light, and nasty, components to be used in the building of cars), but some trace of self respect is still there.
What sort of car is made by people who have no self respect (no code of honour - no trace of one).
The "Volt" of course.
If Clint Eastwood had made his recent (and last) film "Gran T..." about General Motors (rather than a retired Ford man) and named it after an old General Motors car - it would not have worked.
The film works because it is about a man holding (in spite of all his faults) to a code of honour.
The viewers would have recognised "bad faith" if it had been about a General Motors man.
Posted by Paul Marks at September 18, 2011 06:20 PM
