Gregory Freeman: Bush, Car Executives Whine. Skim While American Auto Industry Burns. P-D 1/10/1992

Headline: BUSH, CAR EXECUTIVES WHINE, SKIM WHILE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY BURNS
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., Jan, 10, 1992
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1C, Edition: FIVE STAR

INTESTINAL FLU aside, President George Bush, along with the executives he took with him, looked pretty bad on their recent trip to Japan.
Bush and company looked like a bunch of whiners when they traveled to Japan and other countries to beg them - hat in hand - to let America sell more automobiles there. Their attempts came on the heels of efforts by others - Rep. Richard A. Gephardt among them - to reduce the number of Japanese imports. The Detroit auto executives are rubbing their hands in hopes that those efforts become reality.

Unfortunately, no politician, Democrat or Republican, seems to have the courage to place the responsibility where it lies - in the lap of Detroit automakers.
There's no question that the American auto industry is ill. But restricting Japanese imports - and begging the Japanese to allow us to sell more automobiles there - is not the answer.
The auto industry isn't hurting solely because the Japanese aren't buying American cars. Ma ny Americans aren't buying American cars. And those who try to prevent Americans from buying Japanese cars - by reducing the number of such vehicles that come into the United States - will only do a disservice to American consumers by raising the price on such cars.

For the record, I drive an American car. But I believe Americans should have the right to choose which cars they want to buy. For politicians to try to take that right away - to force people to buy cars made here - can hardly be considered ''the American way.'' People who choose to drive Japanese cars shouldn't be made to feel guilty.

Instead, someone needs to hold the feet of U.S. auto executives to the fire to produce better cars at a better price - and to get the word out about it.
These are the same executives who are rewarded with astronomical salaries, even when they lay off 74,000 employees, as GM announced, just before Christmas. You know: Merry Christmas, you're fired.
It didn't help when GM announced shortly afterward that it was giving out $80 million in bonuses to non-executive, white-collar employees. Nor did the news that former GM Chairman Roger Smith (remember him of ''Roger and Me'' fame?) was receiving a $1.2 million annual pension.

U.S. car executives traveled to Japan to point their fingers at the Japanese for doing a good job of marketing their cars to Americans - at a time when our executives have done little to market our cars to the Japanese. GM, for example, offers no cars where the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, even though the Japanese drive on the left side of the road.
There wouldn't be too many Americans buying Japanese cars if the situation were reversed.

It's easy to blame Japan - Japan-bashing seems to be in fashion these days - but to do so ignores a very basic problem: U.S. automakers have not been innovative enough to capture the interest of Americans.
But to blame Japan for all of our economic woes - as does Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher, the latest to jump on the bandwagon - is no different from David Duke's blaming blacks and Jews for the nation's troubles. Scapegoats are easy when you don't have real solutions.

The irony in all of this is that the president and the auto industry are pushing for exactly what conservatives fought against for so many years - government interference.
To add to the irony, in this instance, perhaps the best thing to do would be to allow the auto industry to handle this problem itself.
When U.S. automakers realize the need to produce better cars at better prices for Americans - and when they learn to market their vehicles effectively to people in other countries - then perhaps they will begin to see a great desire for American-made cars again.

But for now, fat-cat executives - making far and above what anyone heading a failing company should receive in salary - can hardly cry in their beers every time they see Americans looking elsewhere to buy their automobiles. Unless those executives change their ways considerably, the trend toward buying non-American vehicles is sure to continue.

In Japan, executives step down when their companies are failing.
Perhaps now is the time for some American executives to consider similar action of their own.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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