For years Detroit has been cranking out cars that were designed to last for ‘x’ number of years. While in the 50′s and 60′s the average person could work on and maintain their American made car, by the end of the 70′s that idea was already being rendered obsolete. Over the course of the 80′s and 90′s all cars (not just American made) were manufactured as a combination of sophisticated components. Very few items could be maintained at home while parts and service of those parts became completely linked to computers. If the small widget failed inside the component, the entire component needs to be replaced, not just the little widget.

When GM and Chrysler announced they were filing for bankruptcy I, like many Americans understood it was their own fault. For years, in the face of overwhelming evidence that oil supplies were dwindling and there would, indeed, be a need for truly efficient transportation, GM and other American auto makers deemed it too important to build big ol’hunks of  gas-guzzling metal that could generate short-term money, than to build long lasting quality transportation. And the cars they built and sold were designed to wear-out, like so many other products today – on a fairly predictable time-table they would need major repairs and then, when that became too expensive as the ownership of the car moved down the economic chain, it would be junked. Planned obsolescence it is called.

As GM moves into it’s new federally funded period, downsizing the company, the work force, the distribution, chain of dealers and such – all with impunity due to the bankruptcy laws – they are already ginning up a new image for themselves.  Perhaps you’ve seen the  TV commercial that GM is running during the NBA play-offs. Like much of the automobile imagery cast forth from the heartland, it assumes an attitude of near patriotic fervor and seems to evoke a highly ambitious claim of manifest destiny – a call to which America has always believed was it’s its divine right – all neatly packaged and produced to appeal to the emotions of the American consumer.

Here is a satirical re-make of that spot…which may touch on some truths.

What do you think? ~blm