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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> why GM or Ford is the one on top of list for this endeavor?

Ford and GM were massive manufacturers when WWII reared its head. That gives them a rich history of wartime production [1].

The principal cost in these sorts of shifts can be bureaucratic. Having cultural capital to call on is invaluable.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_the_U...

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> Having cultural capital to call on is invaluable.

How similar is the culture today compared to 75+ years ago?

> How similar is the culture today compared to 75+ years ago?

Doesn’t matter. “We did this before and must do it again” is a powerful call to action. That cultural capital spins up the bureaucratic flywheel.

I first heard the song "We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again" on some old Looney Tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veYIbxaU0A8

On the surface it’s very different. But in practice it’s surprisingly close as successfully running any truly large scale manufacturing means direction flows down from the top and innovation flows up from the bottom. Automation may be replacing a lot of labor, but cars are also vastly more complex and have far tighter tolerances.

As a local, I don't know the exact differences in culture today compared to 75 years ago. Though after hearing enough ranting from workers, line bosses, and industrial engineers about exciting topics like quality control, line efficiency, production planning since I was young... I personally think the culture is pretty valuable, especially given the size of the manufacturing workforce.

I think a more pressing question is if any workers will want to come in if GM and Ford commit to this.

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