Many of us have posted on this board about unions, car companies, cars and trucks in general etc.
I have been one of the ones that has been quite vocal on the subject as have a few others but I still think that most of us are still missing the point

I see many talking about their experiences of how their Chevy truck or their Ford Taurus or Chrysler PT cruiser lasted for ever.
There is no argument here. I too have had very good luck. I love my Ford Van.
However individual experiences don't paint a total picture simply one persons fortunes.
Some of the stories bring to mind vehicles that friends of mine have owned such as Chevy pick up trucks that have rusted away in front of their eyes, Fords that literally stood for (FORD Fix or repair daily) but again, that is one persons and only one persons experience.

Let's look at the real picture.
Foreign car companies are building plants in the US and have operated them here for several years. Toyota, Hyundai, Mercedes, Honda and Nissan to name a few.
They build good cars assembled by American workers.
The same kind of American worker that makes your Chevy's Fords and Chryslers.
The American worker is NOT the problem.

These companies make a profit, NONE of them are asking for bailouts so let's lay the blame where it really is
It doesn't take a professor of economics (No Leo not picking on you LOL) to figure this out
The problems are simple and two fold.
Engineering and costs.

Many years ago when the American car companies were at the top of their game thet could afford to build mediocre quality vehicles built with planned obsolesence in mind. They could afford to allow guns being held to their heads by the UAW to sign contracts allowing a lot of what is going now, but times have changed.

It is exactly for those reasons that the foreign companies gained a foothold in this country starting with cars like the VW beetle.

Detroit either didn't recognize the problems or decided to put their head in the sand and now here we are.
We may very well bail them out but don't think that this will end with a few billion dollars.
My opinion is that though it will have a negative impact on the economy we should let them file chapter 11. Let them negate the contracts that pay workers to do nothing, Let us put THOSE monies to re engineer vehicles. Here at least we have the opportunity to actually save an American Industry before that too is gone the way of our electronics industry as well as many others.
We are headed down a quick road to become a third world country as it is. Let's not speed it up anymore

Make your arguments here, yes we should have had import quotas much more stringent than they were. Yes we should have had tarrifs.
I think though if it cost several thousand more to but a foreign vehicle that was dependable, I doubt that many would have minded paying that extra amount.

Let's put the blame where the blame belongs. To use an old quote, We have found the enemy and it is us