Recently I was parked in Morris’ Jewel lot when the radio announcer discussed the closing of four American plants by General Motors. CEO Mary T. Barra said she was closing them because people weren’t buying cars made in those plants. I looked at the three rows of double lines of vehicles in the lot and noticed of the fifty plus vehicles, only three were cars. The others were SUVs and pick-ups. My primary vehicle is a Cherokee.

In our free market capitalism system, a responsible company should only manufacture what they can sell. Of the three cars, one was my 1999 Town car and I doubt the other two were built in this decade. The factories had not gone from full capacity to closing next year. They have already reduced production to meet falling demand.

Ford and Chrysler have already announced factory closings stretching out into 2022 for the same reason. We are not buying cars with good gasoline consumption but pick-ups and SUVs that often get half the car mileage. When the price of gasoline first went over $2.00 we demanded high efficiency (25 mpg) and bought them. Now we are used to $3.00 gasoline and buy vehicles with less than 25 mpg. If gasoline went to $5.00 we might buy high efficiency 40+ mpg cars or will the electrics be plentiful by then. That’s what Barra and other automotive CEOs are planning with their factory closings. They are moving us into the future now whether we want it or not!