GM Viewpoint takes trip around the bend
Your editorial ``GM needs to take fuel-efficient trip'' (Feb. 25, Page 6) ignores one small factor: the marketplace.
I have not heard Joe Public have any concerns about oil supply, only the usual cries of doom from the same eggheads who tell us PVC is killing us all.
Joe Public continues to vote with his wallet, buying a gas-guzzling SUV that GM is more than happy to sell him because social-engineering bureaucrats have made it impossible to produce an affordable family (i.e. large) car that won't throw the artificially high CAFE goals out of whack. After all, what is a Ford Expedition but a Country Squire dressed in hiking boots?
Carmakers have had to subsidize the prices of small cars for years to boost sales and offset the poor mileage of more powerful and profitable cars. They could sell cars with the ``gas-guzzler'' tax added, but would rather not have to deal with that PR nightmare any more than they now have to deal with the ``evil SUV'' lobby.
Please don't try to mask your agenda of increasing plastics use in vehicles behind a smokescreen of concern for the greater good; it makes you as cynical as your friends at Greenpeace.
Roger Rassche
Krauss-Maffei Corp.
Florence, Ky.
Politics, as usual, holds fate of PVC
Concerning the Jan. 14 Viewpoint (``Politics shouldn't determine PVC's fate''), may I point out that the American Plastics Council and the Chemical Manufacturers Association are ``political'' organizations whose main goal is to misinform the public about the dangers of PVC.
You are wrong! It is all political, and politics will decide the fate of PVC.
They sell bottled water in New York for $2.50 because people are concerned about the quality of the water being pumped through PVC pipes. Joe Public does not lose when it comes to any action that will eliminate PVC in the environment.
I urge the Environmental Protection Agency to finally come forward and urge a phaseout of PVC as it did with pressure-treated wood. Both products are contributing to the increase of cancer in the world. If Wal-Mart came forward and told its vendors to eliminate PVC, that would be the end of PVC.
Free enterprise in most cases does protect the public. The Enrons of the world don't give a damn about Joe Public.
Ed Docherty
M&D Sale Group
Middleburg, Fla.
Respect, morality still mean something
Your publication of Mr. Wally Mohammad's comments (``Exec lands Stepco post after prison,'' Jan. 21, Page 1) points out what is happening to our country and to the business community in particular. A person's word or handshake used to mean something.
In Mohammad's world corruption is taken for granted. I for one don't want to do business with someone like that. You don't have to ``break the rules'' to do business. Respect, dignity, honor and morality still mean something to me.
It's evident he didn't learn anything in prison, or did he?
Wayne H. Dunn
Advanced Drainage Systems Inc.
Hamilton, Ohio
