Trouble on the Auto Front

Man. It really stinks being Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Company. As the Detroit Free Press shares, poor Bill Ford, Jr. is experiencing falling pay.

Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford, who told shareholders in May that he would not take any salary, bonus and other awards until the company's automotive operations were profitable, received other compensation totaling $13.3 million last year, according to a regulatory filing today.

That's down 40 % from the $22.2 million that Ford, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, earned in 2004. It reflects the challenging times that face the Dearborn-based automaker.

Challenging times? Like watching every manufacturing and technology job in the State of Michigan go to other states or go to India and China?

The fact of the matter is that dinosaurs like Ford and GM are not only experiencing "challenging times," they are close to extinction. These bloated beasts have placed small businesses in jeopardy for years by artificially raising salaries and benefits, stealing employees, and just plain not paying their bills.

In another few years, they will not exist in their current incarnation. It will be for the better. These companies are reaping as they have sowed.