Are we witnessing the murder of Toyota?

I’ve been watching the congressional hearing today on Toyota’s recent failures and have become increasingly uncomfortable with the proceedings. Let me say first, that I believe Toyota should have to answer for their actions, especially when it involves deaths related to the mistakes in manufacturing. That said, I feel that we are handling this in an inappropriate manner.

First and utmost, there is a huge conflict of interest in the fact that we own GM, a competitor to Toyota. With that cloud hanging over the proceedings, it’s quite difficult for me to believe that congress can be completely objective in holding Toyota accountable for their failures. Too add to that problem, it’s my understanding that we have congressional members in the hearing who are taking campaign donations from the UAW. Since Toyota doesn’t have employee unions in their company, this represents another layer of conflict.

Because of the conflict of interest, it bothers me immensely that these hearings are being held publicly. I’m all for transparency, but I also realize the damage to public trust that can be generated by congressional members who may grandstand in their questioning to Toyota. Remember AIG last year? Talk about grandstanding! I remember the news reporting that people were making death threats to the executives that were going to receive those evil bonuses. The Obama administration and congress let the entire process get out of hand, especially to find out that the Obama administration lied from the get go. I hope that this process is at least more muted.

But because of the way we are handling this, my cynicism over this leads me to wonder if we are witnessing the murder of Toyota here in America. I already feel that we have a corrupt and untrustworthy government and I can’t help believing that some of these congressmen and women are trying to give GM an edge by damaging the public trust of Toyota. I know, it sounds crazy, but there is a major CONFLICT OF INTEREST!

Look, Ideally I would love for the US to not own a car company, so that there would be no conflict of interest issues, at least in that regard. But we do own GM and these hearings are being held publicly and the questioning is in some cases, I believe, careless. For example Chairman Holmes was asking the Toyota Owner and CEO if her hybrid would ever be on a recall list. She ended up making a big deal out of it, partially due to language issues, but in my opinion this is an irresponsible line of questioning. It simply makes a personal issue out of a very public issue and seems a bit self serving.

The bottom line for me is that I can’t have full trust in a process to protect consumers when the prosecuting body is competing with the defendant. Until we can get the government out of the private sector, these type of issues will always be in the forefront when the government feels the need to take up for the general public.