I need a bailout

I was joking with a girlfriend last night that we should be able to apply for the middle-class white girl bail out. I have been part of this plighted group since I was born, and after 29 years I am unemployed, overly-educated, and clearly not going to make it another day. ;-) I need someone to bail me out! But wait! I am competitive, I am agile, I like to learn new things, I always have fun new ideas, I have tons of business plans just waiting to be funded, I am able to support myself and I know that my highly expensive education won't go to waste... This is where "The Big Three" and I are different.

They, for the past 30 years, have tried so hard not to be competitive. Instead they have continued to pay lobbyists in order to make sure that they didn't have to spend R&D money on environmentally friendly, globally competitive cars. They continued to pay ridiculous pensions, which if I was getting one, I would be super happy about but most private companies did away with pensions decades ago. They were mis-guided, they took their eye off the ball, they "went with the status quo because that's what they know." (Great quote, heard from Kendra).

Our country should not bailout corporations like the "big three" who clearly don't want to help us grow. I think I have said it in this blog before, but we are a country that invents, we create, we develop, we figure out better ways to do old things. The big three don't do that. They need to go. We need to get another industry up in Detroit, and I know there are smart people up there who have great ideas probably like me, tons of business plans who can't get funded because they are surrounded by people who have tunnel vision that they need the auto industry to support them in everything they want...

What the American Economy needs

I just read a great article by Michael Porter, a Harvard Business school Professor. He talks about the seven competitive strengths, and then discusses what we need to do as a country in order to get ourselves back on track and to help regain our position as a world power. If I were an incoming President I would take his suggestions to heart.

Some of the better points that I completely agree with are that:
1. We have ignored our educational institutions and this is critical if we want to regain our global economic position
2. We have over-regulated in some industries and under-regulated in others and the imbalance has left us without the advantage that was once the "American Way."

There are many more great points in this article that resonated with me. Please read it and tell your friends to read it...