Submitted by Long, Nov 1, 2006 08:15

"There is worry over the hemorrhaging in the auto industry."

"While the United Auto Workers, the union representing these workers, was once strong, economic circumstances have bled the union's ability to protect its members."

Umm, poor workers, poor auto industry. I regret the plight of individual American workers and individual American manufacturers, but the American economy is booming.

And the big three auto companies, their unions, and their workers cooperated in creating an oligopolistic economic structure that was simply unsustainable. The inflated auto prices that propped-up this house of cards was paid for by other American workers and consumers for decades.

Two key players were instrumental in this ongoing economic drama. W. Edwards Deming went to Japan after WWII and taught the Japanese quality control and efficiency as they rebuilt their economy. The Deming Award is still one of the most prestigious industrial awards given in Japan.

Meanwhile, Robert Strange McNamara was building Ford Motor Company on the principle of ruthless cost cutting. McNamara's influence was so pervasive that his thoughts and methods became dominant in the American auto industry during the years that the auto oligopoly developed. This is but one of the serial disasters that Robert Strange McNamara visited on America.

When Japanese quality control and efficiency collided with American cost cutting and over-pricing, who would you expect to win?

And if the American auto industry is now reaping what it once sowed, the rest of America is enjoying the strongest large economy in the world. This is due mostly to the American genius for inventing and importing that which works, including reimporting Deming's ideas, for which he could not find a market in post-war America.

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