Being born during the first Nixon administration, I had this little three-word slogan RAMMED down my throat during the Eighties.  It was actually good advice.  You didn't have to make a show of things.  All you had to do was just say, "No."  Then you just walked away and let the chips fall where they may.

      The only time it is useful to play retrospective hypothetical games is when you are trying to figure out what you want to do in the event of there being a 'next time'.  The best thing that can happen with our current situation of all these companies is for Uncle Sam is to stay out of things and let capitalism run its course.  If there is any government intervention whatsoever, it should be that Washington should waive all corporate income tax for this year.  Just wipe it clean.

      "Wait a (censored) minute!  Why do I have to pay my personal income tax when none of the corporations have to pay theirs?"  That's a valid question.  If you understand economics, you understand that corporations have NEVER paid taxes; only the end users in the economic chain (that's YOU) pay taxes.  More succinctly, their tax break will become YOUR tax break.  How?  The jobs that will be saved will prevent a large upsurge in EICs, AFDC, WIC, and every other program for which the folks who will lose their jobs will justifiably line up to receive those benefits.  Those are paid for with tax dollars.  What Uncle Sam doesn't pay, you shouldn't pay.

      People do their best work under pressure.  It bites, but that's the way it is.  With respect to the auto industry, they are acting like that deadbeat member of your family who never comes around unless and until they want something.  Do you remember what happens when the relative with the money finally turns off the tap?  Gee, Wally!  The deadbeat finally figures out a plan of action and gets their life together!  At least, we like to think that this is the way this is.  Right now, our auto industry is in bad shape because it is married to that deadbeat wife called the UAW who only wants to take the money and doesn't want to do one solitary thing to help out with the bills.  So, even though they've been married for so many years, it just isn't working any more.  Our auto industry is also hampered by the very parents/inlaws who are furnishing the money.  The logic goes:  since we are forking over this money, we should have a say in how it is spent.  Even though that statement is actually valid, the Washington parents are actually wanting this errant child to spend the borrowed money on things which actually aren't helping that child out at all.  Why?  The parents are so in love with the bride that they can't see her doing anything wrong, ever.  At some point, this man-child auto industry is going to have to kick out the wife and tell the parents to get out of its business so it can grow up.  He may even have to find a different wife. 

      Seriously, what is so bad about the prospect of Toyota owning GM or Honda buying out Ford?  How many readers of this blog know that Nissan is actually a wholly owned subsidiary of Renault?  Did Japan fall off the map, or did we get a pretty cool Z as a result?  Were it not for the Daimler-Chrysler marriage (destroyed by the UAW and the IRS, btw), we wouldn't be seeing so many new street Hemis right now.  If you read the FairTax books, you will know that it would have been Chrysler-Daimler had it not been for our confiscatory tax rates.  People mistakenly believe that the money you spend on a Honda Civic built in Ohio goes to Japan.  Don't insult your own intelligence.  The money you spend goes to the North American companies (and employees) who have a hand in the manufacture of your Honda's components and their final assembly.  So, let's say Uncle Sam does the right things by saying no to the bailouts and getting OUT of the auto industry's business.  There is no disgrace in the American auto industry approaching the Japanese brands and asking for a lifeline in the form of a buyout.  Think of it as capitalism's 'bailout with benefits', but no one is getting (censored) in the deal. =)  Do you really believe a company like Toyota would say no to a chance to own something like the American capacity for production?  A Z is still a Z.  Do you really believe the Corvette or Mustang would go away if their progenitors were Japanese brands which actually had the sense to listen to Deming and play hardball with the unions?  Those brands are icons; in fact, it was the Renault buyout of Nissan which made the new Fairlady Z possible.  Will we finally see the Vette and Mustang lose weight?

      Changing gears a bit (pun intended):  should the government have the sense to say no to bailouts, it will hurt, but it will not hurt nearly to the extent that it will sting if they keep treating a problem that isn't healing because Washington doesn't have the sense that God gave a goose to close the wound?