Quotation for Today, Sunday 14 June

For all its peculiarities, the car industry is no dinosaur—Toyota, for instance, is a byword for manufacturing excellence. But the unevolved GM deserved extinction. Detroit employed so many people and figured so large in American culture that governments felt they had to protect it; but in doing so, they made it vulnerable to less-coddled competitors from abroad. By trying to keep their car industry big, America’s leaders ended up preventing it from becoming good. There is a lesson in that which all governments would do well to learn.

The Economist on the demise of GM

Advertisement