In this era of massive bailouts the auto companies are asking for pathetically little, especially when the ripple effect is considered. The arguments for letting them fail don't seem valid.

First, poor management. Building cars which are inefficient, large and don't meet the demands of the market. Well, they did meet the demands and they were high profit. Traditionally Americans demanded big vehicles, the law was written with a loophole making it possible to build and sell them, and carmakers responded.

How good was the management at the financial companies? How responsible were the ratings services, the mortgage brokers, the folks who created highly leveraged derivatives?

Certainly the automakers weren't any more culpable than they.

Second, the high wages. How much are the folks over at AIG making? How much are they spending on parties? And AIG has something like $200 billion in bailout money.

Anyone heard of bonuses in the auto industry like the ones in the financial industry?

The auto industry gets dinged for providing health and retirement benefits. My, my. Every employer should be required to do that, every single one. As sit is, the massive right-wing media has for years lobbied against such things.

And a gullible public goes for it.

The real reasons "they" would let the automakers go while investing trillions of dollars elsewhere is because they are Union. It's part of the class warfare which has gone on for a long, long time, part of the distribution of wealth to the wealthy.

Arf