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Originally Posted by glatt
Ooh. Let's hear about the radial tires in '75.
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You are confusing a 1990 event (ATX Wilderness) with their 1975 conspiracy (Firestone 500s). Properly constructed tires do not fail when under inflated. That was business school graduates spinning myths to consumers who only believe the first thing told rather than learn facts.
ATX Wilderness tires failed because many treads were improperly glued directly to a steel belt. Using a defective manufacturing process. Firestone promised Ford that they would add a fifth ply to eliminate that problem. Marked all future tires as 5 ply. And never installed that fifth ply. Ford eventually discovered the fraud and demanded Firestone replace all $2billion of defective tires. Firestone refused. Ford terminated a contract with Firestone dating back to when Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford even vacationed together.
That story is irrelevant to this discussion. A radial tire (that got 40,000 miles) was developed in 1948. To keep selling their inferior bias belted tires (only 10,000 miles), the American tire industry got Congress to place a massive tariff on radial tires from superior foreign firms (ie Michelin). Once Michelin opened factories (secretly) in Nova Scotia and South Carolina, then domestic manufacturers panicked. All made tires so defective that a government study later discovered failure rates at about 50%. I met a Firestone paraplegic. He told me the story. I was not sure until latter reading more details in Consumer Reports. As long as he kept quiet, Firestone would pay for him for life.
Firestone determined it was cheaper to pay off all the paraplegics and quadriplegics. And then the government exposed a conspiracy that included Goodrich, Uniroyal, Goodyear, Firestone, and others.
Why do foreigners now own most former American tire companies? They conspired to get Congress to keep the radial out of America. Because the purpose of a company is only profits. Conspired rather than innovate. Had those companies been patriotic, then the purpose of each company was its product. No paraplegics. No loss of American jobs. But those companies believed what the mafia also believes. Their only purpose is profits - the consumer is best financially raped or loses body parts.
Ethanol is a similar story. Ethanol that actually works comed from Brazil. But more important are profits; not the product or the advancement of America. American ethanol is crap. Brazil spend a few decades letting engineers develop a superior ethanol. So, just like with Michelin, corrupt businessmen bought politicians and the 50 cent per gallon tarrif.
See those GM cars marked with a faceplate claiming ready even for 15% ethanol? That is not about advancing America. They get a generous government subsidy for each car assembled to have that Ethanol sticker. More subsidizes by corrupt Congressmen to business school graduates who claim, "The purpose of a company is its profits."