tagged w/ planned obsolescence
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Michael Moore has something to say about American cars and the fate of GM. Here is an excerpt:
"At the deathbed of General Motors, I find myself filled with—dare I say it—joy. Here are my nine suggestions for transforming the company.
I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the president of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.
As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?
Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM?
It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence"—the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one—has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh—and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle-class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes..."Michael Moore has something to say about American cars and the fate of GM. Here is an... more
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The thick-lined drawings of the Earth, a factory and a house, meant to convey the cycle of human consumption, are straightforward and child-friendly. So are the pictures of dark puffs of factory smoke and an outlined skull and crossbones, representing polluting chemicals floating in the air.
Which is one reason “The Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video about the effects of human consumption, has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation.
The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste, and it has its detractors. But it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/The thick-lined drawings of the Earth, a factory and a house, meant to convey the... more
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at least for the time being. Hope you weren't one of those overniters. If so, you're one unhappy camper right now.at least for the time being. Hope you weren't one of those overniters. If so,... more
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