Nine Shift

All Fall Down: Eerie Quiet in Detroit (Part III)

Marketing experts used to say that train people didn't understand they were in the transportation business, not train business. Today auto execs don't understand they are in the transportation business, not car business.  One Barnum Bailey Ringling Bros.  auto company (Toyota?) might remain in 20 years, but the rest are going bye-bye.  Here's the final installment by Kimberly Taylor of her visit to Detroit a few weeks ago.

"There’s a quiet that is the sound of hospitals. It is also the sound of the big three. There’s the typical Midwest kindness but it is tinged by an inescapable pall mixed with gallows humor that down to the last one they all have. “Just about everyone here has packed personal belongings and brought them home,” we were told by a friend. She said the exit drill is so common that the thirty minutes to pack your possessions and be escorted out the door isn’t enough time emotionally or physically. “I’ve been in the automotive industry my whole life. I love what I do. I don’t know what to do. The morale has never been lower,” were comments we heard from all of them. One important advocate, a lion, has been offered a package. If you say no you may be offered another and likely the deal will not be so sweet or you may have your position just eliminated. 55 years old and 30 years in the industry is the not so lucky target age. Too old to work forever. Too young to ever retire in an economy like this. The cuts are never ending and they long ago got rid of all of the fat. They talk about their neighbors, foreclosures, the empty desks of friends whose targets on their backs caught management attention. And still, rising above all of that, the pride and loyalty and gratefulness they all feel to have been lucky enough to have a role in this great capitalist undertaking rivals the confusion and sense of loss."  Part 3 of 3

All Fall Down: Eerie Quiet in Detroit (Part II)

Circuses consolidated 100 years ago in a losing effort to maintain their entertainment dominance of the agrarian age.  Today the auto companies are pursuing a similarly losing effort with mergers.

Here's Part II of our series this week on a personal visit by Kimberly Taylor to Detroit this fall:

"We met with a lot of people and I want to mix up their stories even though they are all from the same script. The stories are from people at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. One meeting included another organization and everything was upbeat and politic until we parted and heard from our friends hurried, whispered tales of how desperate things are. In another meeting that lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes, for 65 minutes  we heard the wildly clashing fear and hope of someone who needed to explain the inexplicable. “There’s no laughter here anymore,” she said. In the Chrysler meeting we were told that the magnificent building they are in was designed as a gigantic shopping mall in case the OEM didn’t make it. What an eerie “can you beat these odds?” challenge to be reminded of every day. The layoffs are so massive that these corporate mansions have empty cubicles turned storerooms everywhere. Chrysler is selling off capital assets (i.e. buildings) and consolidating people in one place. I suspect all of them are. Bare bones means people are getting their salaries but they don’t have budgets to do anything and the paltry amounts they are given are never secure."  Part 2 of 3

VIrtual Murder! He wrote

"A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher's sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

She used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo City said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy."   See the story here.

All Fall Down: Eerie Quiet in Detroit (Part I)

As GM tries desperately to stay in business with a (hopeless) merger with Chrysler,  Kimberly Taylor (courtesy of Paul Franklin) sends us this first person report about visiting Detroit.

"We stayed in the Renaissance Center, the symbol of largesse for the greatest automaker in the world. The quiet halls, unleased spaces and an obviously deteriorating downtown could have been a sign of July, or a sign. This week, the first part of October, we returned for three days of meetings with auto people, including the big three.  The news the first morning was that General Motors may be offering the Renaissance Center to the highest bidder.  I walked away with a feeling of tremendous sadness. Sadness for the proud and loyal workers, for the dreams gone awry, for the country. We saw many good industry friends whom we’ve known for a long time and we met many new people but as I left today, I felt like I had witnessed something important about the people, how the companies are coping, and a desperate need for leaders."  Part 1 of 3

 

The Evidence Gen Y Isn't Driving

Gen Y is not driving.
Prompted by a participant at my national railroad keynote this month, NineShift has done original literature research to substantiate the Evidence Gen Y Isn't Driving. 

Three of the facts we found:
1. Percentage of young people with driver's licenses is dropping. 
It's dropping compared to earlier generations of people at the same age. It's dropping compared to older drivers over the same period of time analyzed.
2. Ford's sale analyst, reported by Ward's - - the leading auto magazine - - reports Gen Y does not want to buy material things, including cars, as did their Boomer parents.
3. The rise of car sharing. 
Here's what ZipCar and Enterprise rental says about car sharing in this USA Today story:

Enterprise spokeswoman Lisa Martini says "car sharing is the wave of the future," while ZipCar CEO Scott Griffith noted, "We don't see car rental as our competitor. We see car ownership as our competitor." 

For the entire report on The Evidence Gen Y Isn't Driving, just email me at draves@lern.org  Photo: ZipCar store in the middle of New York City. Photo by NineShift!

Some want to move backwards

In the transition time, more and more people want to move forward.  But then there are those  whowant to move backwards.

Even in the U.K., where much of the new 21st century pedagogy is originated, one in five teachers want to bring back the hitting of boys, called "caning."  See the story.

There will be steps backward, and some people wanting to go backwards.  So expect to see that. Fortunately we will see more people understanding that we have to move forward. 

First American schools stop late homework penalty

In April the Toronto School Board prohibited teachers from penalizing students for late homework. Now the first American schools are leading education and have stopped penalizing late homework. It's great news!

According to this story in the Raleigh News Observer by Patrick Winn:

"School leaders in Wake are encouraging teachers to stop giving zeros for late or missed homework assignments. East Millbrook Middle School in Raleigh does not count homework as part of the academic grade." 

It's just the start of a big pedagogical war over grading based on behavior versus grading based on learning and knowledge. 

 

Trains get funding!

Congress has passed new rail funding of $3.4 billion.  It means more trains for Americans.

There will be many states applying for that funding, with the likely national funding of 80% and states kicking in 20% of the expansion costs.  A Wisconsin Department of Transportation official told NineShift that our state DOT will ask for mon ey to connect our state capital of Madison with Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Chicago with one main train line.  If funded, this would initiate an entire statewide system of trains. Other states are likely to do the same thing. Great news!

P.S.:  Your NineShift blogger has been researcher possible train station sites for our local area, forwarding the info to the state DOT.  So there's a big role for citizen advocacy and action as well.

Nationalize the banks!

During the last worst bank crisis of 1932, the bankers came to FDR and begged for help.  FDR could have nationalized the banks. He didn't. 

FDR historian Kenneth C. Davis told me that this was the worst mistake of the New Deal.  Do we have another shot at nationalizing the banks?  

They are not calling it "nationalization," which smacks too much of socialism, but buying shares or partial ownership by the government (and people) is being actively discussed in both the United States and Europe. Photo: our local bank is NOT in trouble, the sign just fell down. Nice symbolism though.

Europe calls for regulating America

America is losing prestige and power on a daily basis this month.
In a few years we will see the rest of the world forcing America to behave.

This week both the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, and President Sarkozy (thanks to Michael for correcting spelling) of France called on new international regulations that would prevent financial market irresponsibility.  Both blamed Americans for the current worldwide financial crisis.

Just the start to the international community forcing America to behave in the 21st century, including pollution control, waging war, food safety, intellectual property law, etc.