I think not.

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My solution involves garnishing the wages and pensions of those who allowed the American auto industry to fade to irrelevance, but then again, I am a Socialist.

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I realize the collapse of the financial services industry is horrible, but frankly, at this point, we need to bite the bullet and let these badly managed companies fail. Let them be replaced with newer, smarter, more capable companies, with managers who are actually able to make money without raping average Americans.

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As for admen, they'll be okay. They will. Collapse of domestic car producers just means foreign manufacturers will want to gobble up more market share and will be clamouring at the door.

I would much rather see this money invested in training centres/infrastructure investment that would give rise to lots of semi-skilled trade jobs in depressed areas.

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I look at the admen because that's my chosen industry, and I have friends at agencies that are already feeling pain from this. If the auto giants file for bankruptcy, all their spending on tradeshow development, product rollouts, and advertising will be under intense scrutiny-which means they pull in the reigns right quick. While I hope that foreign investors will pick up the pieces, something about our country being used by foreign financers for labor and market share sits very uncomfortably with me. It's like Rome is dying, and there are plenty of countries eagerly waiting to pick up the pieces.

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I agree with all the points that the auto industry has to a large extent dug its own hole, but at the same time i think letting them fail right now could be catastrophic, since so many other companies are dependent on the auto industry buying their goods and services. I've read something like 2-3 million people.

I guess I'm leaning toward a bailout BUT attaching a lot of conditions to make sure they actually reform the industry, invest in more efficient technologies and not end up in the same situation again a few years down the road.

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I also know that health benefits and legacy costs are a much larger part of the per car cost for American automakers than for foreign car makers. Something like $6000 per car compared to about $2000 to $3000. That shows how much our healthcare costs impact other industries in this country.

The auto industries problems are huge and long in the making. I just hope that the drop in oil prices don't make people complacent so they don't think about fuel efficiency in their vehicles. Oil prices can go up again and put us in this same situation again.

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