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InResponse: Letter to the Editor

So all that glitters is chrome?
I read Emile’s article “Not all that glitters is chrome,” and I found several areas ripe for scrutiny. Now, I like to be sure, whenever I am misinformed, that I take correction as humbly as possible and don’t appreciate being belittled. This means that I will spare you the virulent comments I am known for. For starters it is ignorant of you to list your e-mail, sign your name, much less print your picture on an article claiming that the new Camaro is being forced on us. The fact is that ever since Chevy ended the Camaro production, the Mustang has its run of the segment and has been cleaning up. The idea that a bankrupt automaker circling the drain has the ability to force anything on a society is stupid.

The reason why none of the representatives could answer your question about the number of cows it takes to upholster a car is because if they did know they would probably tell you and you would have printed it in your newspaper article, which they wouldn’t have appreciated. If you really want to crunch numbers, the number of cars with leather is relatively small compared to the number of cars without leather, so basically the amount of leather in a car is mutually exclusive to the number of cars with any leather at all.

In this world, to reduce cost and increase volume of productivity you have to outsource your labor to countries where labor is cheaper. While outsourcing has its problems, the idea that car manufacturers don’t fairly compensate workers in other countries is preposterous. Our own workers here in America make a fine living on jobs outsourced from Japan, from companies like Honda and Toyota. Do you realize that the majority of our GDP in this country is from production of cars and car parts?

Please don’t think I am some NASCAR fan who has no concept of the world around him. I am an engineering student here and I can tell you firsthand that replacing gasoline in this world as a source of energy is not something that a liberal arts or leisure studies major can do. If you are going to attack subjects because you saw a movie some vice president won an Oscar for, I encourage you to understand what you are writing before you go to print.

Meanwhile, the product I want to buy is a V-8 Camaro, and while you want to go as far as you can on your gas, I want to purchase a vehicle I can be proud of. So don’t make fun of my taste in products and I won’t make fun of yours. Either way, you ought to realize that a lot of people like big American cars. You sir are the minority.

Since I am the generation who will wean us from gasoline I also encourage you not to piss me off or I will build seven-liter V-10s that proudly burn refined dinosaur at alarming rates.
– Clark Thompson • cthomp55@mscd.edu