For years, the American car industry has been on the road to failure. It now appears the industry has reached its destination.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081212/D95106M80.html

With the collapse of the goverment bailout negotiations, it seems unlikely that the Big Three will be rescued from their collapse any time soon.  That leads to two questions: Who is to blame?  And what can be done now?

Who destroyed this once mighty American industry?  Politicians in Washington are debating this with Democrats blaming management and Republicans blaming labor.  I take a different view: I blame both management and labor.

Want proof that management is out of touch?  What other industry flies its executives in private jets to Washington so that the executives can beg for a handout from the government?  This symbolizes the misjudgment and mismanagement that have defined the reign of these car executives.

But the union bosses are equally to blame. In the 1950s, General Motors signed the first union agreement that guaranteed cost-of-living increases.  This was the beginning of the American auto industry’s self-destructive path as its labor costs grew to unsustainable levels.  Today, workers at American car companies get paid $71 an hour, while their competitors at foreign car companies make $42 an hour. Is it any wonder that our domestic car industry can’t compete?

Now we find that the president might intervene with previously authorized money.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16523.html

If he does, he should insist on changes from the top floor to the shop floor.  Management and labor got us in this mess together.  They must both sacrifice to get us out.

- Randy Hill