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Michael Moore has written an open letter to President Barack Obama , with nine recommendations for saving the American economy and putting General Motors back to work.

[A]s GM is “reorganized” by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made “Roger & Me,” I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided.

As Angus at Kids Prefer Cheese points out , Moore doesn’t seem to remember exactly what his recommendations to save General Motors were 20 years ago.  For those who haven’t seen “Roger & Me,” Moore’s program for the American auto industry consisted of:

1. Employing as many people as possible in Michigan, at higher-than-market wages with higher-than-market benefits;
2. No employment of anyone outside the United States, where labor costs and factory overhead are cheaper than in Michigan;
3. No use of computers, robotics, or other efficient, cost-saving technologies in the manufacture of cars; and
4. That’s pretty much it.

20 years later, it’s clear that Moore was right.  What forced General Motors into bankruptcy was an excess of efficient technology, along with low labor costs.  The same problems bedeviled Chrysler.

In keeping with his status as a prophet, Moore has a number of recommendations for what can be done to save GM, and the American economy, today.  I particularly liked these:

Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades — and we don’t even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven’t used it, is criminal.

 

See the whole thing here