The Auto Makers and a Matter of Perception

The financial stakes are beyond what most people can comprehend. General Motors requires an operating budget of eleven billion dollars a month to pay its bills. So, in the context of the level of money each of the auto makers go through in a month, going to Washington, D.C. in a private jets in just a small percentage of the monthly expenses:

“… “There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses,” Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told the chief executive officers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious.”"

link: Big Three auto CEOs flew private jets to ask for taxpayer money

Most people in the general public would have been pleased with a round trip ticket from Detroit to Washington. The comparisons would be a five to six hundred round trip ticket versus twenty thousand dollars for a private jet.

With the story in the international media, it is a public relations nightmare. These are business executive going to Washington to ask for public money. The majority of the contributors to these public funds do not fly in private jets. It is a matter of perception. It leaves ‘John and Jane Q. Public’ a picture of business executives who are so out-of-touch with the common man. These executives fly in private jets. They do not stand at the self serve gas station and watch the pump prices. They do not consider what groceries might not be necessary in order to save a few dollars. They do not worry that perhaps the very next family illness may trigger a personal financial meltdown. We do.

Catherine Forsythe