High Gas Prices Affect the Manufacturing Sector

Ford Motor Company announced steep cutbacks in vehicle production for the coming model year due to high gas prices. Production of the F-150 will be scaled back, and that will directly affect the economy of Kansas City. The F-150 is assembled in Claycomo, just across the Missouri River and part of the greater Kansas City metro area.

Now is the time to demand that Vice President Cheney reveal the details of his top-secret energy task force. Oil companies are experiencing record profits, and consumers are paying record prices. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are pretty damned good that it's a duck.

I am all for eliminating the excessive production of gas-guzzling four-wheel drive SUV's that never get muddy; and anyone who drives a truck and doesn't need it for work is a pretentious jackass. And American auto makers produced way too many of the damned things for way too many years. They brought this on themselves, and it is right that they feel the pinch. But their folly will directly affect the economy of the city I live in. It isn't right that workers and other businesses suffer because of a monster companies bad decisions in years past.

Have we learned our lesson? In the post-war era, if it was good for GM (or Ford or Chrysler, for that matter) it was good for America. One sector of the manufacturing economy can't be that critical to the economy. If that sector goes down, it takes the entire economy with it.

How long can we live in a false economy before we experience a major realignment? Are cutbacks in domestic automotive production and high gas prices the signal that we are in for several years of economic upheaval?