Psychopolitics with Dr. Brian Russell

By Dr. Brian Russell

It struck me this week how utterly disillusioned Henry Ford would surely be if he were alive to see this. I mean, he founded the Ford Motor Company over 100 years ago, and after all of the consolidation in the U.S. auto industry in the past century, his company is the only one of the remaining “big three” that’s solvent (not doing particularly well, but still in business, without taxpayer dollars). Henry Ford (and his heirs and shareholders) won. His competitors are bankrupt, or effectively bankrupt, and his company is not. That’s supposed to mean that his competitors go out of business, and Ford’s the proverbial “last man standing,” the lone American auto giant. Those were the rules that Ford started playing by at the beginning of the last century, but after over a century of playing by those rules, now that Ford’s won, the rules are being changed so that his competitors can stay in the game. Imagine how he’d feel. Imagine how you’d feel, if you were running a race, and your competitors tired out and had to stop running, and as you were approaching the finish line, race officials stopped the race, gave your competitors — but not you — nourishment and a chance to rest, brought your competitors up to the point where they were even with you, and then restarted the race. That’s what we’re doing, and while I sympathize with all of the Americans whose jobs depend on the auto industry, I believe that the long-term damage we’re doing to our country by changing the rules is far greater than the relatively short-term damage that would be done by letting the best man — Ford in this case — win.

(Originally published Friday, May 01, 2009)

Dr. Brian Russell is a licensed psychologist, attorney at law and familiar national television pundit on psychological, legal and cultural issues.

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