Plain Talk There Isn’t Somewhere Else By Rob Buksar These days, and f ‘a, sadly I might add, 4 idealism and vision ~~ | seem to be in short | supply. Our immedi- i 7 | my fd ate gratification and today’s, not tomorrow’s, bottom line is all that formulates too many of our perspectives, opinions and certainly actions. If you’re one of the fortunate few still able to “cut a fat hog” and are en- joying a better quality of life now ver- sus ten years ago via your small busi- ness, congratulations. I hope your good fortune continues. Just don’t al- low current personal prosperity and present good fortune to taint your per- spective and cloud your judgement. Your good luck changes nothing. The economic infrastructure that supports your small business is eroding just like everyone else’s. It just hasn’t hit you yet. Your businesses and potential mar- kets are being devoured a bite at a time. The elders and trade association leaders in our industry are quick not to address problems for fear of being politically incorrect. Furthermore, the remedy that’s been offered for the markets being ripped off from us is “go find a niche somewhere.” Finding a niche doesn’t even qualify for poor comedy! When the general market has been ripped off finding niche business would be like finding an extra life boat on the Titanic, or 30 people trying to stay afloat with one life preserver. Can you picture this? You know damn well what happens— everyone sinks! Americans have traditionally put a lot of faith in its elected officials and leaders to do the right thing. By and large we have done real well compared to the rest of the world. It is unthink- able for most that the very people we have elected to govern us have sold us out for 30 pieces of silver. We don’t like to think about the unthinkable. However, Winston Churchill said, “If you don’t look the facts in the face they have a way of stabbing you in the back.” Friends, well over a year ago I began talking about the curse of glo- balization via the World Trade Orga- nization. Many of you instantly recog- nized what I was talking about and contacted me to tell me so. That was great. It was even better to hear that some of you had begun taking different types of action in your own communities. I thought many would find it inter- esting to know that some who publicly came out and called me negative, re- actionary, emotional and just plain wrong are now out of business by the same elements they either tried to pro- tect, support, or denied the reality of. The surviving contingent is presently relocating or trying to relocate their shops, rebuilding and manufacturing to Mexico, India or China. Why? When asked they will tell you it has become difficult, ifnot impossible, to sell Ameri- can made parts in an American mar- ket. The only real way to make any money doing business in America is to have your goods made by slave labor in some underdeveloped country. I sure hope and pray that most of you can see something wrong with this pic- ture. Let’s take a quick historical look at the road we’ve been on. Thousands of small shops rebuilt automotive, FEBRUARY, 2000 heavy duty, agricultural, special and whatever import there was to do at the time. These small organizations sup- plied the nation’s electrical needs through one form of distribution or an- other. Enter the multinational automo- tive retailers with major connections to its own Third World manufacturing and the blessing of the U.S. government. Injust a few short years independently owned parts stores and warehouses get driven out of business. The Goliaths have their products made and pack- aged in the Third World and sent di- rectly to the retail market at what was once domestic manufacturing cost. This tactic did not allow any other form of distribution to exist since products were being sold retail far cheaper than they could even be made here. This tactic is illegal but the president of the United States via his attorney general determines what laws will and won’t be enforced. These trade laws and Sherman’s Anti-Trust Law have obvi- ously been set aside. For the larger part, rebuilders have now lost darn near all of the automo- tive market to gigantic corporations and offshore concerns. The import rebuilding never really materialized. We all thought imports would take up the slack from lost au- tomotive. Boy, were we wrong. Of course a few crumbs fall off the table but most import units now come in the country brand new cheaper than we can even tear them down. They also circumvent distribution and go cheap to the retail market. Now the last real bastion of re- building profits is presently under at- tack by OEM and the big offshore boys. Delco is producing and distrib- uting truckloads of new and rebuilt units so cheaply it’s hard to fathom. It’s real disheartening to pull into the same truck Page 1 of 2