A hat tip to Jim Huntzinger for letting several of us know about this interview of Newt Gingrich on Fox's Hannity & Colmes. We mentioned Newt before, and in this interview he takes the Detroit 3 to task, specifically mentioning the power of the Toyota Production System. Here's a partial transcript, with this section happening about 3:30 into
the video.
Well a lot of ways in the auto industry is a tragic situation. Remember that when we say the auto industry there are an awful lot of factories in America today that are not General Motors, Ford or Chrysler that are doing pretty well. Whether it's Honda, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai – it's amazing if you look at the factories that are doing fine. The fact is for the over the years though that the Michigan delegation, the Democrats with the Michigan delegation, has protected the United Auto Workers with really bad contracts. And the culture of the once Big Three, now Troubled Three, has been a culture which has refused to come to grips with reality. Refused to try to change and reshape itself. None of this is magic. We've known for twenty years that the Toyota Production System was a more powerful method of increasing productivity and solving problems. And yet the United Auto Workers refused to adopt that model. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler went along with of this.
Want some more fun? Here are over twenty cartoons on the auto bailout!