The Big Three US automakers have spent the past 3+ decades making cars that were too big, used too much oil, and valued an outmoded sense of style over innovation and 21st century function.
I for one am none too displeased that they will be going the way of Wang Computers and the Montreal Expos.
I am of course concerned for the workers and their families who likely will be hardest hit; having to live with reduced salaries, pensions and health care coverage into the foreseeable future will be a real hardship that should not be underestimated (as many congressional Republicans do).
It is not at all fair that the line and the low level administrative workers (and not top management) will be among those hardest hit by the coming bankruptcy and restructuring. After all it was top management who with willful ignorance (or was it just greed and avarice) stepped on the gas as GM, Chrysler and Ford motored towards the edge of the chasm in the 70's, 80's, 90's and early 00's. These moral cowards and economic fools deserve at least a full measure of public opprobrium and perhaps even long term intimacy with a cold dark cell. Unfortunately, neither of these are real solutions in the sense of making working people's prospects brighter. They won't bring back a terminally damaged industry that must be fundamentally reshaped to match a revolution in the way we (America) approach our patterns of settlement and development in the 21st century.
For this reason we must not let our short term wish to save jobs (and companies) get in the way of our need to fundamentally reform the way we live, work and play. And while I'll sing no blues over the death of the Big Three, it doesn't mean letting those hurt by the coming creative destruction languish.
We can (and should) build programs that make the transition, especially for those most impacted by the wrenching changes, possible without deep and widespread suffering. This we can do by extending the scale and length of unemployment insurance, expanding re-training programs and higher education subsidies, focusing on local community investment projects that enhance sustainability, and by continuing to push for legislation that provides affordable health care for every American.
So my bottom line is kill the old industry (RIP) and re-build a new American auto/transportation industry that can sustain our needs and create great jobs for the next 100 years.