Safe and Familiar isn’t an Option

In less than one week, the world will end.

Off in the backcountry and hidden along forest roads, even I can’t shake the building tension. A defeatist atmosphere prevails over the formerly United States of America. The election countdown has become a doomsday clock. As that count winds down, half of the country expects the worst.

Which half you ask?

The half-convinced it might lose. The half certain the election of one or another white, male septuagenarian to the highest office will spell the end times. The half convinced we will be dragged into civil war. The half who sees the fortunes of the entire country riding on one vote. On one man’s every word.

Far away from it all, as usual, I’ve got a distinctly different view.

Political policy can alter the course of a nation, but ultimately, the winds of change will determine the fate. Fight against them, you arrive much too late. Sail with them at your back, you arrive fully prepared and ahead of schedule.

A decade ago, our government handed out one of the largest financial bailouts in history before 2020’s pandemic. Of those industries receiving funds, the automobile industry stood first in line.

Mitt Romney famously claimed the bailout would end the American automobile industry. Over time, Obama’s supporters declared the move a resounding success. Little did either know, the American auto industry died long ago of self-inflicted wounds.

What caused that death? A shift from their core business. A lack of desire to innovate. A stagnant worldview that led them to seek their profits as moneylenders, not car manufacturers. Their rescue wasn’t to save the legacy of Detroit steel, but simply an extension of the larger banking crisis.

A look today at the auto market’s current EV (electric vehicle) offerings, shows a wide range of competitors: Tesla, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Audi, MINI, Porsche, Jaguar, and finally, a late-comer, Chevy a division of GM.

Or were they a late-comer? With the news today, you’d never know they pioneered the EV way back in the nineties.

In 1996, GM launched the first mass-produced electric vehicle. After only six meager years with fewer than twelve…