During an intermission at yesterday's hockey game between the Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers (Detroit won, 2-0 and clinched home ice throughout the playoffs - yay!), there was a promotional wherein a Toyota SUV made a lap on the ice. The crowd
booed.
12 comments:
Yeah, that was a pretty dumb idea. Kind of like during the NBA finals a few years back. LA Lakers v. Philadelphia 76ers. Destiny's Child sang at half time in Philly. One of the singers wore a Lakers jersey. Philly fan reacted exactly as you would guess Philly fan would react with massive booing.
I love it. Now if they would direct some of that animosity toward their incompetent 9-11 dispatchers . . .
Oh, they are EP. It's a big deal up there.
Here's a though, maybe the Detroit folks were booing themselves for making such crappy cars?
Nuje,
A few years ago, one of the instructors at Goodfellow AFB out in San Angelo went to a bar downtown (O'Reilly's, I think), and got really drunk. In his drunken state, someone said something about Texas and he responded "Texas F'ing Sucks!"
They took him to the hospital in an ambulance.
That's very similar to how Detroit tends to feel about people who are critical about their cars.
Nuje,
For most of the last century, a couple million people in and around Detroit made their living in the auto industry. When Japanese and other foreign imports came in and began selling, a couple million people in and around Detroit got laid off. When they no longer had income, the economy in Michigan nose-dived. My brother, a trucker for an unrelated industry, lost his job because people could no longer afford to buy the product he was delivering. These are not the people who designed the cars, these are the blue collar factory workers who built them. The white collar guys couldn't design to compete with the imports, I guess. Michigan has never recovered. That's one of the (indirect) reasons I live in Tacoma now. And all these years later, I still will not, cannot, buy a car unless it carries an American name. I don't care if the all Dodge parts are built overseas, I have to buy a Dodge because it's "American." I know it's foolish, but I am being loyal, in some crazy way, to the state where I was born and grew up. I understand COMPLETELY why they booed the Toyota.
Wow, we posted at the same time gramma. I didn't see your post before I wrote my last comment.
I understand the loyalty and I'm pretty myopic at times (I still like GW for example). Our Mazda Tribute is made by Ford so in a way, I'm still helping Michigan folks...I guess. (?)
I choose to buy cars that are built in America but not by union labor.
I can appreciate that, Kevin. I think that the unions are important, and without them we run a serious risk of the overwhelming corporate thumb of the 19th century, but I really think that unions like UAW need some real overhauls. It almost seems (from the outside) that they are working to justify their continued existence, which I think is counterproductive to their continued existence.
That said, I have had both foreign and domestic cars and haven't noticed a discernable difference in them (which I guess is to be expected when the average age of your cars is 10 years), and as such, I'll probably stick with American from here on out.
Hey Kevin,
Unions are the reason American workers have it pretty good. All workers have benefitted by the hard work that unions have done. Now, that being said, I agree with Steve that some of the big ones do need an overhaul. Their job today should be to protect workers from unfair practices rather than to continue to make demands that may not be reachable. I am strongly union.
And Nuje, sorry I went off on that rant about Detroit autoworkers. I guess your joke (?) hit a nerve - a big one! And I don't have a problem with people buying foreign made cars, it's just something I can't do. Frankly, I don't know who makes what anymore, and I think a lot of our American made cars really are made overseas...
Hey Kevin,
Unions are the reason American workers have it pretty good. All workers have benefitted by the hard work that unions have done. Now, that being said, I agree with Steve that some of the big ones do need an overhaul. Their job today should be to protect workers from unfair practices rather than to continue to make demands that may not be reachable. I am strongly union.
And Nuje, sorry I went off on that rant about Detroit autoworkers. I guess your joke (?) hit a nerve - a big one! And I don't have a problem with people buying foreign made cars, it's just something I can't do. Frankly, I don't know who makes what anymore, and I think a lot of our American made cars really are made overseas...
What an interested chain of thoughts on this post. Start with booing at a hockey game and move on to discussion about state of unions in the U.S.
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