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Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Who Are These Guys, Anyway?
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points—not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
So, here's my C list:
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President—the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.
Leadership is all about managing change—whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.
A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths—for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION—a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President—four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know—Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.
Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world—and I like it here."
I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.
The Biggest C is Crisis
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.
That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A Hell of a Mess
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen—and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?
Had Enough?
Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney
Copyright © 2007 by Lee Iacocca
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87 Comments so far
Show Allrather than attacking iaccoca why don't you listen to what he has to say -- it's about time someone with the ability to be heard spoke up.
my solution:
a coup: line them all up. even military rule is better than what we have now.
god will thank you.
All government is evil and trying and improve it is a waste of time.
HL Mencken
As Douglas Adams pointed out in the Hitchhiker's Guide, those who are best fit to lead want to and probably would not have the support of those who pick the "frontrunners." (People like Bill Moyers come to mind here.)
Unfortunately, those who are unfit to lead most want to.
Point well taken, but it was Douglas Adams who wrote "Hitchhiker's guide". Where are all the Zaphod Beeblebrox's? :-)
When and IF we can get the money out of politics then and only then will the "People" matter. When those officials that ARE elected move in this direction then the People will again be representated. Right now all offices are available to the highest bidder.
OMG! There's an "Edit This" link next to my last post!!! Yay Commondreams staff-- you guys rock (more often than not :-). JP-- You can go back, change "Brian" to "Douglas" and make me look like an idiot now.
Our leaders will change.
Monopoly television is being destroyed by more democratic online broadcasts and participation.
what leaders?!?!? have not seen one in years!!!!! Iacocca, were you ever a leader? what did you ever do to improve the overall quality of life in the united states. after 82 years....well... better late than never. use your "business skills" to empower people!
Throw the bums out!
"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss"
Systemic change means work for us.
"The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones." John Maynard Keynes
This is a nice, fiery article. But where was Iacocca in 2004? We needed more prominent voices like his before the election. Where was all the COURAGE, CONVICTION, and COMMON SENSE back in 2004?
Bravo, Lee Iacocca, a $1 man.
I would espect Lee's book drummed up on BookTV last weekend; no such luck. So much about public cooperative C-SPAN.
Iacocca calling for leaders?
My favorite leadership quote is from James McGregor Burns in his book titled "Leadership."
He said that "the opposite of a leader is a tyrant."
My favorite Iacocca quote comes from Charles Garfield's book Second To None. It is a statement in response to the Chrysler Youth Committee's report which recommended a more egalitarian style of relating to employees.
Iacocca said: "They wanted us to eat in the cafeteria and go through the rain in the parking lot like everybody else. We don't go for that." p. 73.
This was 1986, a year in which he made over $23 million.
Dear Mr. Iacocca: Once again I read a clear delineation of the problems this country confronts, and I agree with your findings. Unfortunately, no one in our government is willing to respond with the same firmness and clarity, least of all, those who most want to head the government. There is not a leader in the lot, though one or two - Mr. Kucinich or Mr. Gravel, perhaps - show some potential. But to articulate the problems is not enough. Nor is your call to "shake off the horseshit and go to work." What is missing most, what we are seeking, is an equally clear course of action to take. We are all tired of the garbage that passes as news, the platitudes our overpaid politicians have convinced themselves are meaningful. We are all outraged at the actions of those who pretend to be leaders. We need something more, much more. I now find myself among people so disheartened that they are talking reluctantly and sadly about the growing need for a tangible revolution, because everything else seems to have failed to produce a badly needed change.
Iacocca wrote this? Damn, this is one hot article! :)
Dear Mr. Iacocca,
That rather loud noice you may hear over the horizon is me yelling "Right ON!!!!" I too have had enough of all the mealy mouthed charlatans that grace our media and positions of power today. It is past time we the citizens of this country demanded and got accountability of those we choose to lead us. It is time to stop letting our inertia from the past keep us from creating real change for the future. It is time to start asking "WHY?"! It is far past time we created an environment where leaders can stand up and say, "Here's what WE can do!" too many wish to play it safe and do just enough to grab a little something for themselves. There are no grand visions anymore. What got the New Deal or the Great Society moving was not what was politically expedient but the vision of what needed to be done. It is time to stop lowering our expectations and demand more not only from politicians but from each other. It doesn't matter when you got this sense of urgency. The fact is you got it and it is time everyone else did too. Let's make 2008 the year that America got Democracy again. I am ready and willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to see that happen. What about the rest of you? Do any of you have to courage?
P.S. Thanks for the Mustang, my first and best driving experience ever!
Never mind getting the best for leaders--how can we stop choosing the worst?
whatever iacocca's faults might be, it's good to hear ANYONE speak out. i put in my two cents wherever i can, and if anyone who disagreed w/ me knew my pedigree, they'd be hard-pressed not to attack w/ an argumentum ad hominem. but that doesn't make me wrong. we need as many voices as we can get to speak out against the madness that's taken over our government and our media.
This is the most important article I have read in a long time!
bandido,
I enjoy many quotes from Mencken, but that last one sounds a bit too much like Grover Norquist.
Thanks to Mr. Iacocca for this attempt to shake up the American public and its leaders. It is incredible that we elected a man who doesn't read newspapers. It is quite apparent that Bush is not only of below average intellect but is also departed from reality. Has he been correct on any issue yet? He didn't know to end his vacation when the biggest hurricane ever was headed for our coast. The November elections caught him completely unaware. He looked at the recommendations from the Iraq Study Group and did the exact opposite. There are indications that his father and his wife are ashamed of him, now. How is it that Congress continues to follow his lead? The Republican presidential candidates refuse to talk about exiting Iraq, a strategy which is certain to send votes to Hillary.
How stupid they will all look for blindly following this one unworthy man.
I will vote for anybody that is honest!
We elect a leader so we can be lazy and blame all the problems on them.
The people need to lead, it's called grassroots!
In a Wikigovernment leaders spell out their goals and methods using their site and we the people can express how those methods affect us. As ideas gel we can rate what is most agreeable to everyone.
While I do like Mr Iacoca's piece and agree with a lot of what he says and will buy his book and read it just as soon as it shows up in the remainered rack, my recollection of his leadership is in 1979 he led the way hat in hand to ask for $1.2 billion dollars in loan guarantees from the United States government to keep Chrysler Corporation, the organization through which he was enacting his leadership skills, from going economically belly up.
wow very interesting, I'm reading this thinking, really, a captain of industry coming out against his fellow fascists, then I get to the end and find out it's a plug for his new book. What we really need is someone worth hundreds of millions of dollars to do something for free. I'm sorry Mr. Iacoca doesn't seem to realize that he is the problem. I don't care how productive you are, how innovative, or whatever your rational for thinking you are worth this much more than anybody else, your not. As long as we believe this sort of nonsense, that CEOs, board members, chief officers or anybody else at the top who makes hundreds of times as much as the average worker does, we are going to have these problems. The workplace is where this kind of disillusion comes from. When you work all day for a meager portion only to watch the guys at the top drive away with dump truck loads you tend to get disillusioned, when folks that have more than they could possibly need in a whole lifetime tell you that YOU have enough while they still grasp for more, you get disillusioned. So Mr. Iacocca if you wonder where the outrage is, it's your fault. The folks that get up everyday and go to work 50 weeks a year have been outraged for decades and they've given up. Where are the leaders that are willing to say I'm willing to give my employees their fair share, that aren't rabidly afraid of collective bargaining, that's what I want to know.
P.S. thanks Mendo Chuck, I wasn't sure if the bailout was before or after Mr. Iacocca, I think he was brought in as part of the bail out of chrysler. My point is that is where the outrage went. When joe average watched his tax dollars go to bailout fatcat investors and corporate executives, he was outraged and no one cared. Chrysler should have become a solely employee owned company as a result of that bailout. Instead investors and banks that made bad decisions got rescued while union employees had to take wage rollback and benefit cuts, where is the outrage about this?
Great article! I have been thinking the same thing for a long time. When will someone run who wants to do something good for the Country, not rape it.
As the name says, Nader is the only leader I have seen lately.
More importantly, where the hell has all the citizenry gone?
People that are asleep wouldn't reconize a good leader from a bad one. People who haven't the ability to think critically, will not be able to decide which issues are critical and which are red-herrings. They will vote out of imagined fears rather than look at the real ones--and much of this can be blamed on the purchased press and mind-numbing media. Many people are more concerned about who's going to win American Idol or Survivor than they are about political catastrophies that herald in a world of war, disease, climate change, nuclear/chemical/bio weaponry use, religious conficts, extinction of flora and fauna--or even themselves.
We are about to collapse. I agree, also, with greenman's comments. He makes some very important observations.
You are very right greenman
Whoooole lotta whinin' goin' on around here.
Iaccocca turned around a moribund manufacturing company. He's got most of the "C"'s he sets out as key dimensions of leadership. I'd say he stacks up pretty well against most of the Progressive armchair pundits I've read on this website.
Iacocca's message is to have the guts to hope, and to convert hope into action. Vigorous action.
If you examine most of the responses above, the common theme seems to be "all is lost, so let's not try anymore".
That is so, so lame, and it is exactly why Progressives have no political power to speak of. The one thing Repubs can do is to execute. They have no imagination, and they are frightened little weasels inside. But they sure can organize, and they're willing to work. So they win.
Whining is for losers.
AMEN
Difinition of a "Punk":
A punk is a guy, not even courageous enough to be a bully, who hires a bully (a guy who picks on people weaker than himself), to harm other people that he himself wouldn't have the courage to face himself.
The typical punk is a tremendous weakling, empowered by some protective organization, or money or connections.
A punk is warped and repulsive.
Americans detest punks. And what amazed me Mr. Iacocca, is that they can stand to be identified with "punkhood."
Mr. Iacocca, Thank you for standing up. Would you please contact Mr. Gorbachev and maybe the two of you, coming out of retirement, could set up a committee to rescue our Nation from the mess it has gotten into. We are very close to the point of no return. The lice at the head of our government need a good dose of FLIT.
I don't agree with you about Lee Iaccoca, Greenman. That was then, this is now. I watched him being interviewed a couple of days ago, and near the end he made the following point about executive pay vs. workers' earnings [this is not verbatim, except for the words in quote marks, but the gist is correct]: Corporate executives are getting obscene amounts ($200,000,000 a year and more) without any regard for their performance, while workers are losing ground. "If this keeps up, we will destroy capitalism!" My jaw dropped -- the man gets it, just as FDR did when the Great Depression hit.
Mr. Iaccocca doesn't know where the leaders are? He mentions JFK as if an Oswald killed him,what about RFK, MLK, Wellstone,and JFK jr.(and all the foreign assasinations)? Then he writes "the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11". Is not 2007 the culmination of 9/11, not the other way around?
Where was Mr.Iacocca's corporation when the electric car (and street railways) were assasinated? I'm afraid he judges our problems as being of excess not direction.
Bob in Canada
Mr. Iacocca's ideas generally make sense. It is about time someone from his class told it like it is. However, I have a huge problem with this statement: "Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen—and more important, what are we going to do about it?" How did it happen? Lee should know. His "turn around" of Chrysler was based on introducing "new" models that were nothing more than new bodies on old designs. The comeback cars of the eighties and nineties were nothing more than K cars (The horrible Omni and Horizon) with van, convertable, or sedan bodies slapped on them. For a generation, Chrysler simply reheated old designs and dumped the pieces of crap on the American public. While he was being toasted as a miracle worker, the Japanese car makers were actually designing better and better cars. We are now at the point that Detroit is on life support because of the lack of leadership of people like Iacocca. The reason that the "Big Three" are not so big is that they have not introduced an exciting new design on their own for thirty years! During that time jackasses like Lee sold the myth that it was the auto workers that were killing their companies with high wages and benefits. In reality those at the top put short term profits above long term corporte health. Finally, was it not the great Lee Iacocca that signed off on the Ford Pinto gas tank design? Yeah the one that took out the splash guard, saved Ford $.50 per car and was linked to scores of deaths, finally costing Ford millions of dollars in judgements.
BUT- will he energize and empower the people?
very good comments and ideas; I'd feel better about it if at the end, he'd say all profits from the book will go to the Ron Paul campaign . . . who is such a leader!
AdeleTheCzech, I think you are missing my point, I don't care what he says, look at his actions. You say that was then this is now, yes now that he is retired, he thinks CEOs compensation is obscene. Let's see, has he given the obscene amounts he was making back then to the people who worked for him back then, now that he thinks it's obscene. Whatever he said on TV is suspect,he's selling a book. If he really believes this, why doesn't he give the book away, I mean if he's really worried about the destruction of capitalism? It all sounds like some carpet-bagging profiteer to me, there's a market to be exploited(mad as hell citizens) and he's exploiting it. He isn't calling for a change in the system either, capitalism always ends up here, a hadfull of elites who are out of touch with the rigors of everyday life for average person, are in control of everything and own all the capital.
Remember the game Monopoly, when was the least time you played it? It's fun to play a few times. It's not a game for a very large group of people, you can start out with as many players as you like, but the majority of the game is played by the last 2 players fighting it out. The rest of the people that started playing the game have left or are doing something else. In life you are stuck playing. The game wasn't invented by Milton Bradly either, it was invented by an economist who was trying to illustrate this very point.
I am heartened at Mr. Iacocca's article in that most of us on this thread can yell, scream and tear our hair out at the frustration of having an imbecile representing us to the world and no one in power listens. Liberal is a term for a group of people (progressive if you like) that have successfully been minimalized. Mr. Iacocca may have been on the sidelines in 2004 and for what ever reason comes out against all that has come down but it could be a watershed event. There may be others respected in the financial circles that feel the same way but were afraid of the Karl Rove syndrome, maybe they will feel emboldened to come forth and speak their mind.
I agree with gsemsel that we are in sorry need of some sort of revolution but it won't come from the middle class, it has to come from the ruling class as the general population is too mesmerized by wide screen TVs and Sunday afternoon football (think roller-ball)to participate in a revolution of any sorts that takes them away from "being entertained" very long. They got out to vote for a change in the war (if that was what inspired them) but there is no follow-up and probably won't be during "Ws" term in office. It now is virtually impossible for a third party candidate to get heard so our revolution won't come that way.
Welcome aboard Lee, we needed you a long time ago but are thankful you are here with or without your book.
He never mentioned MEDIA REFORM!
I think what Lee is really trying to say is that we need some 'media reform'.
MEDIA REFORM is more important than the war on terror. MEDIA REFORM is more important than global warming. And yes, MEDIA REFORM, is more important than ousting the current administration.
It is so simple it's celabratory.
Atta go Lee. I still love the K-car.
adamwestfakey@yahoo.ca
NMBill! I can't believe you wrote "He never mentioned MEDIA REFORM!', seconds before I wrote mine.
Weird!!
adamwestfakey@yahoo.ca
"The people" have had PLENTY of reasons to organize and to agitate, yet they (we) still sit on their collective asses.
If one thing is true, it is certainly true that we get the government we deserve.
No, Greenman, I didn't miss your point. It was rather that I was looking ahead, not back. When Iaccoca said "If this keeps up [the gross imbalance of wealth] we will destroy capitalism!" it struck me that because he has always been a blunt-spoken popular figure, the message may get through to many a blue-collar Republican who wouldn't pay attention if a "liberal" said it.
At least that's my hope.
Mr West-It's cosmic trust me!
I don't think it's a wise strategy to criticize people such as Al Gore and Arnold S..(I don't want to spell that one right now) because they are not impeccable. Those two are doing more than anyone else to make meaningful changes. Mr. Iacocca probabaly doesn't need book money; it sounds to me like he is fed up with the same things most of the people who visit this website are. Perhaps reform came late, but this is a man who, as Adele says above, is less likely to be dismissed, and wields a great deal of influence. I hope he keeps spreading the word.
"Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it)."
Like the baseball fans do in Chicago and now in Philadelphia when someone from another team hits a homerun: "throw it back!!" Give it to your workers, the public schools, the country's infrastructure (levees!), vehicles that run only on renewable energy, "mom and pop" (small) businesses, health care for all who live here. Tell your rich friends to do the same. Tell the rich people who hide their money so little of it is taxed to pay their fair share.
That is one way you can help.
As for the rest of us, we need to turn off our stupid-tubes, read more, and have more conversations. Like this one. Or in person.
Right on NM Bill, Adam West and others!
Media reform is absolutely the first thing Lee I. and anybody else seriously promoting real solutions needs to endorse. Public financing of campaigns is the second thing that he needs to endorse. Until the monopolized media is controlled and the revenues they receive for political advertising reduced, only puppets of the fascist corporations will have adequate funding to run in, let alone win an election.
That's right Lee. Where the hell have you been for 4 years? You write NOW about what has been going on for more than 4 years. Many of us have been agitating about this since day ONE, wondering where people like you were. Thanks for coming out of the closet.
Warfare's first rule:
DIVIDE
Warfare's second rule:
CONQUER
It is we who have been divided.
The neocons have been working the church for generations. They will fervently boycott, march, and swamp congress with mail. Why? Because they are natural born followers. They listen to the same broadcasts, read the same books and shop at the same Mart. But in our haste to demonize the real and significant evils we face, we have demonized FOLLOWERSHIP.
It has been said that a leader without followers is just out taking a walk. The left has been so busy infighting (like us on these comment pages) that we have accomplished nothing.
Perhaps if we were better followers, true and visionary leadership would meet the challenge.
Perhaps if we abandoned the title "progressive" and embraced the tag of RADICAL...
NO? Just keep on pursuing glacially slow change? Hmmm...
If any of you care to join us here in reality, there already is a leader. You just aren't a follower.
Yet
As discussion sites go, this one appears to be one of the best.....I lean strongly with gsemel and greenman.....I suggest Mr. Iacocca sends every member of Congress his rant before the 1st class postage rate goes up and also to every MSM source in the standard media book. Finally, would he donate the profits he will reap from his high-profile tome directly to those lowest-level exEnron employees gypped out of their retirement pay by rapacious members of his Very Fat Cat Class of CEOs!!?? Ah, Let's have Compassionate Capitalism for tenured workers.
That's for all the people to decide. Let's use the Internet in government like we use it here.