Self-described “public citizen” Ralph Nader is taking aim at the
auto industry again. Nader, who made headlines back in the Sixties with his book, Unsafe at Any Speed, writes how the current auto industry
is in a “dark age” deliberately brought about by the Big Three, their dealers, and even the unions. The
result has stymied technological, safety, and fuel-efficiency for domestic products, with Nader pointing to the SUV as
the ultimate in “profitable junk”.
Worse, argues Nader, loss of market share and Wall
Street’s nearly continuous downgrading of Ford and General Motors’ bonds to junk status has done little (if any)
to remove the executives who keep the companies in their “witless masochism”. Nader writes that automotive
supplies, inventors, and researchers, who, working with the government, can bring light to this dark age.
Is Nader right, or is his writing the thing that’s ‘Unsafe at any Heed’? Sound off in ‘Comments.’
[Source: Counterpunch]