The Consequences of Waste

I was saddened to hear that Ford had to lay off 30,000 workers and shut down plants. Although I'm a supporter of their product, this news was not surprising at all. When the mainstay of your profit margain is centered on gas hog SUVs and pickup trucks, it's just inevitable that people will stop buying that product when gas prices rise. Since when have gas prices ever really dropped in this country? Yet people kept buying Explorers like gas would always be $1.29 a gallon.

So who do you blame --- Ford for making gas sucking vehicles or the people who keep on buying them until gas prices got outrageous? Ford could and did roll out a more economical SUV in 2002, but nobody bought them until now. On the other hand, the gas mileage on their smaller Ranger pickup truck is still terrible --- like an average of 21 mpg.

Who's dumber, the company or its customers? Both probably.