General Motors is asking to be added to the list of businesses being bailed out by the U.S. Government. And while I understand President-elect Obama is leaning in such a direction (and that politically he probably has no choice but to go along with it) I must say...personally, I would let them go under.
Rather than step up to the plate with innovative engery-saving ideas for the 21st century, the auto companies in Detroit have been running their businesses into the ground for decades with gas-guzzling jalopies. In the mean time, foreign automakers have been raking in the dough with higher gas-mileage hybrid-energy vehicles. And then, when Detroit sees their profits turn into record-breaking losses, they whine like babies.
September 11, 2001 should have been the clarion call for G.M., Ford, and the rest of the domestic auto companies to get to work on cars that would eventually run on very little gasoline. Had they made that conversion, they wouldn't be in the mess they're in today. But they didn't, and now that call needs to come from the collapse of one of their own.
G.M. is as good a place to start as any.
