The Decline of Detroit - Maybe

Here is the text of a Letter to the Editor that I sent to the Wall Street Journal.

I wish to respectfully associate myself with the comments made by Mr. John Schnapp in his article entitled The Decline of Detroit and was published in the July 14-16 2007 Wall Street Journal and can be found at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118437946701766538-search.html?KEYWORDS=schnapp&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month.

Mr. Schnapp correctly points out a number of things that people who wish to continually bash the UAW seem to miss, namely that Detroit makes cars that many people do not want for various reasons.

I get so tired of hearing the over used statistic about $1500 per car goes to pay for retirees health costs. If Detroit made cars that people truly wanted, the $1500 would decrease or be eliminated due to volume.

I am also so tired of hearing the big three state that they produce cars that the market demand. Taking a "let's see what they want and we'll give it to them" approach versus being world class and designing and building cars and marketing cars that are innovative has made the Big Three move into second rate status as an industry.

We need leadership in Detroit that will not simply bend to whatever is popular. They need to innovate to create the next generation of cars that will create the demand that they so desperately need. They did it before with the SUV and the minivan, and they now need to do it again.