Good night Saab

Thanks a lot GM for pulling the plug on Saab. Trollhättan will die. Swedes will complain. Politicians will be blamed. Surely, it'd be nice to have saved Saab for nationalistic reasons, but to keep a company around that makes a loss of 37 billion kr in 10 years for nostalgic reasons (that's 37 000 000 000 kr) ... I don't know. Of course the news papers are filled with pictures from a golden era, poor people having worked for Saab for 35 years crying "Now what will I do now?". I'm sorry, but I can't answer that question. Get a new job maybe? 15 000 people will lose their jobs. I don't know if you know, but we're not that many people in this little country, so that'd probably even make a dent in the unemployment statistics.

My own idea of Saab doesn't have much to do with the one presented in the media. I remember my aunt's rusty Saabs, the ones with broken mufflers going up and down my street with screaming semi conscious teenagers in the back seat, the working cars of the farmers full of cow droppings and piglets. Not as glamourous as the sales pitch makes it sound is it?

The long term effects would be more interesting to investigate. Will the factory worker die out in Sweden? Will we have to be so centralized that the more rural areas will go the same route as the nostalgic idea of Saab to begin with. Is there no hope? Of course there's hope! Life goes on. It's perfectly fine to miss what has been, the days of safe employment, cheap housing and a sense of that all of Sweden is alive. Parts of Sweden have been dead for a long time. This is just another another nail in the coffin for landsbygdsromantik. Feel free to google that expression. I'm proud of my country, I'm proud over being a Swede. What I'm not so proud of is the tendency to become handicapped in situation where action is needed. The tendency to dwell on what has been. Saab falling apart has been rushing towards us as long as I can remember. It can't really be that big of a suprise.

Saab hasn't even been fully Swedish since the 1980's. In other countries the governments have supported the car industry with more billions, but not here. Kind of ironic when you think about it. But why should they? Saab wasn't technically Swedish. GM has had full ownership since 2000. Is it the Swedish governments responsibility to support a company that, yes has production in Sweden, but the profits end up in a corporate business? This is what the protest of the workers are. They should have helped more. How? I ask you how? Where's the limit? After that help would any company be eligable for help when they can't quite make it? Every little knick knack store, every plumber, every stable. It wouldn't work, would it? The rules should be the same for small and big. And I suppose this is what happens when those rules are applied.

There was a similar situation in the 1990's where the banks got bailed out. Only one bank made it completely without governmental support. If we're going to have a free market, why not let it be free? That is however impossible in Sweden.

We don't have minimum wages, yet employers can't shop around for the cheapest workers as it's regulated between the union and the employers, and no company would like to be black listen for low salaries. I'm all for being able to make enough money from your job to be able to support yourself, but maybe, if we had a roof for how much you should be paid, companies would be able to afford more workers, and unemployment'd drop. At least in theory. Don't be greedy. The more money you make, the more you can afford to spend, prices will go up, and you'll need a raise. It's called inflation. You might have heard of it.

So, good night darling Saab. I'm sure there'll be a special about you on TV soon and Sweden will cry for a car not many of us even wanted.