Let The Big Three Fail

For the last forty years the big three American auto makers have been fighting any and all regulation of their industry, spending billions of dollars to successfully lobby lawmakers so they wouldn't have to improve fuel efficiency and safety. I guess it shines a tiny beam of good light on Congress that we have airbags and anti-lock brakes (are those required yet?) but the number one reason Chrysler, Ford, and GM are on the verge of collapse is because of fuel efficiency. We don't even require the average mileage of American cars to be better than the Model T Ford! All these stupid Hummers, Yukons, Expeditions, and Durangos with their whirlpool-in-the-tank V8's and V10's were only competitive in this country because of subsidized oil (didn't Exxon break their record for profits yet again?), lack of regulation, and SUV sized loopholes in mileage standards (as if a fucking chrome plated hummer is ever used as a work vehicle). If we had improved efficiency and emmissions steadily as we originally planned back in the 70's, U.S. automakers would be competitive in the world market now, but these behemoths fought regulation at every turn and now that their house of cards has collapsed they feel entitled to a massive handout to save their sorry asses. I say let 'em die like the pea brained dinosaurs they are. Why should we help these idiots pump out a bunch more crappy cars when we can buy Toyotas and Nissans? Even as Detroit was pumping out 5000 pound living rooms on wheels the best selling car was the fuel efficient and safe Camry. Shouldn't they have noticed this?

Car makers will argue that pensions and health care for their employees is one of the chief causes of their malaise since every other civilized country in the world provides its citizens with health care, removing this burden on their competition, and most other civilized countries have a strong welfare state, keeping the impoverished elderly from starvation and bankruptcy at the end of their lives. Again, this is largely their own fault. In their war against regulation the people they have bought into office (i.e. Republicans) have also been the kind of people that are allergic to universal and affordable health care. They have hoisted themselves onto their own pitards and I say we leave them their to twist in the wind.