Detroit

"When Kaiser arrived in Spokane in 1907, the West was unquestionably ripe for industrialization; had he not stepped in to play a leading role in this development, others would have. Between the world wars, his contributions paralleled those of his nineteenth-century predecessors in emphasizing development of the regional infrastructure. He and various partners helped set the stage for an increased pace of economic development by constructing hundreds of miles of paved roads and pipelines, dozens of bridges and tunnels, and several of the huge dams authorized by the federal government during the Depression. From 1939 on, Kaiser entered an ever-widening circle of industries, including cement, magnesium, shipbuilding, steel, aluminum, housing, building materials, and nuclear power plants. His medical program eventually spread east, but when he died it served mainly the West. Kaiser hoped to begin a West Coast automobile industry, but logistical and other problems persuaded him to center operations in Detroit; the automobile endeavor was his single, obvious failure. Kaiser’s contributions to western development reached far beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. After he “retired” to Hawaii in 1954, he promoted tourism, built hotels and a new city, and entered radio and television on Oahu."

"This is how the Japanese conquered the US car market in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Remember that the Japanese invasion enjoyed only limited success until the twin oil shocks of the 1970s. As a result of the quadrupling of gasoline prices, many people bought Japanese, expecting to get very good gas mileage, which they did. If this had been all, in other words, if the Japanese had only met their expectations, we would have predicted that once gas prices subsided, people would go back to Detroit iron."

"Consider that Honda and Toyota can bring out a new model in roughly 2 years, with superb quality, while it still takes Detroit at least a year longer."

"Over the past four decades, China has grown richer, more technologically capable, and more diplomatically assertive abroad. China learned so well from the United States that it started to beat America at its own game: capitalism, industry, and harnessing its people’s restless ambitions. If you want to appreciate what Detroit felt like at its peak, it’s probably better to experience that in Shenzhen than anywhere in the United States."

"Sometimes not even bankruptcy can stop an automaker from production. Zhido, a producer of small EVs, went bust in 2019; five years later, it had restructured, with government help, and [restarted its production lines](private://read/01k3jwt46q240aq6fe12mqkyr0/16_Notes.xhtml#_idTextAnchor327). NIO Inc. was right on the brink of bankruptcy in 2020 until its home government of Hefei rescued it; the company has since turned around its fortunes and is once more shipping its electric vehicles. The United States offered extraordinary bailouts to Detroit automakers in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In China, local governments help companies out every day. As a result, few of the brands can achieve really big scale, and China has to depend on exports to absorb all the vehicles domestic consumers aren’t buying."

"Many of the United States’ most storied companies have been ailing. Detroit’s automakers, having limped along for decades, are now stumbling through the transition to electric vehicles. US Steel, General Electric, and IBM are shadows of their past selves. Intel, mired in cycles of blown product timelines and layoffs, went from a semiconductor trailblazer to a clear laggard behind Taiwan’s TSMC. After two of Boeing’s 737 MAX jets crashed in 2017, the company promised strenuous efforts to guarantee the safety of its aircraft. Then a door blew off midair in 2024. Boeing, like Intel, is constantly delaying the launch of long-planned products."

"When Kaiser arrived in Spokane in 1907, the West was unquestionably ripe for industrialization; had he not stepped in to play a leading role in this development, others would have. Between the world wars, his contributions paralleled those of his nineteenth-century predecessors in emphasizing development of the regional infrastructure. He and various partners helped set the stage for an increased pace of economic development by constructing hundreds of miles of paved roads and pipelines, dozens of bridges and tunnels, and several of the huge dams authorized by the federal government during the Depression. From 1939 on, Kaiser entered an ever-widening circle of industries, including cement, magnesium, shipbuilding, steel, aluminum, housing, building materials, and nuclear power plants. His medical program eventually spread east, but when he died it served mainly the West. Kaiser hoped to begin a West Coast automobile industry, but logistical and other problems persuaded him to center operations in Detroit; the automobile endeavor was his single, obvious failure. Kaiser’s contributions to western development reached far beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. After he “retired” to Hawaii in 1954, he promoted tourism, built hotels and a new city, and entered radio and television on Oahu."

"The dominant mind-set in Detroit, Gibbs discovered, was completely orientated toward high-volume manufacturing and intense specialisation. If you weren’t making 100,000 units of something, nobody was interested. And it was impossible to find anyone who had designed a car, only people who had spent their entire careers designing door handles, fuel pumps, window wipers or other such small pieces of the jigsaw. When they tried to find someone to design the electrical harness — the vehicle’s wiring — the best they could manage in Detroit was a subcontractor who offered to put together a team of 10 people to do the job. That didn’t suit a small start-up company. Gibbs wanted one person who could take responsibility for design and manufacture. Jenkins had to travel to Chicago to find someone, and he came from the whiteware industry."

"They thought it was possible, but that it would be pretty hard. Importantly, however, they couldn’t see any complete show-stoppers. I thought, bugger it, my marriage is finished, I’ve got nothing much to do with my time, oh heck, I may as well have a decent go at this. If this invention is going to be useful anywhere, the obvious place is America. They’ve got the money, plenty of water and a love of freedom. So, almost straight away, in early April 1997, I hopped on a plane and flew to Detroit. I pulled out the Yellow Pages, found a joker who knew something about the car industry to be my guide and spent three months interviewing engineering consulting firms to develop this thing."