Four dollars for a gallon of gasoline likely will prove to have been the tipping point toward significant and long-term consumer and business changes. Hopefully, political shifts will occur.
Tuesday's news that General Motors will close its Janesville plant and three others in North America by 2010 is sobering news, indeed, but it is not surprising.
"It was just a kick in the gut," Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday, describing how many in southern Wisconsin felt at hearing the news.
"I thought this was going to happen way before now," longtime plant employee Bill Donovan was quoted by the Associated Press. Donovan reflected another thought most in the region had Tuesday - it was bound to happen.
Surging gasoline prices have been squeezing consumers and industries for months. But when the average price of gasoline swiftly approached $4 per gallon in recent weeks, there were noticeable changes across the county. Travel declined during the Memorial Day holiday. Gasoline consumption is finally - and necessarily - slowing. Demand for smaller, cheaper, more fuel-efficient vehicles grew.
With gas at about $4 a gallon, consumers finally are changing the way they live their lives and make their purchases in ways significant enough to force massive economic shifts.
The GM announcement Tuesday was a reflection of that. It simply doesn't pay American automakers to produce trucks and SUVs the way they used to. Unfortunately, Janesville's plant makes trucks and SUVs. American automakers - much later than most of the rest of the world's car producers, of course - are making fundamental changes in their business. Janesville's plant, after surviving the Depression and valleys in the auto industry over a period of nearly 100 years, finally no longer fit into those plans.
Seismic shifts in consumerism will continue to occur, affecting virtually all industries and communities. Leaders at the local, state and national levels of government must make the effort to anticipate what those changes will be, to prepare their communities to grow and thrive along with them instead of being forced to react.
Tuesday's news that General Motors will close its Janesville plant and three others in North America by 2010 is sobering news, indeed, but it is not surprising.
"It was just a kick in the gut," Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday, describing how many in southern Wisconsin felt at hearing the news.
"I thought this was going to happen way before now," longtime plant employee Bill Donovan was quoted by the Associated Press. Donovan reflected another thought most in the region had Tuesday - it was bound to happen.
Surging gasoline prices have been squeezing consumers and industries for months. But when the average price of gasoline swiftly approached $4 per gallon in recent weeks, there were noticeable changes across the county. Travel declined during the Memorial Day holiday. Gasoline consumption is finally - and necessarily - slowing. Demand for smaller, cheaper, more fuel-efficient vehicles grew.
With gas at about $4 a gallon, consumers finally are changing the way they live their lives and make their purchases in ways significant enough to force massive economic shifts.
The GM announcement Tuesday was a reflection of that. It simply doesn't pay American automakers to produce trucks and SUVs the way they used to. Unfortunately, Janesville's plant makes trucks and SUVs. American automakers - much later than most of the rest of the world's car producers, of course - are making fundamental changes in their business. Janesville's plant, after surviving the Depression and valleys in the auto industry over a period of nearly 100 years, finally no longer fit into those plans.
Seismic shifts in consumerism will continue to occur, affecting virtually all industries and communities. Leaders at the local, state and national levels of government must make the effort to anticipate what those changes will be, to prepare their communities to grow and thrive along with them instead of being forced to react.
