I agree with SteveZ. Sounds a little like the Village sales pitch...."We can only hold it for 3 hours". (But remember, there are 200 more houses just like the one you're looking at).

Seriously, if one compares the U.S. auto makers to the foreigners manufacturing on our turf, it's like night and day. Unfortunately, the U.S. companies have failed to recognize (apparently) that the foreign firms have been successful here not only because of better quality but because of better operations overall. The Big Three have vastly improved their quality but strategically marketing wise they've dropped the ball.

Honda, Toyota, Nissan have been cleaning the BIg 3's collective clocks for years and they've just been too damn slow to respond.

Tribune Newspapers bankruptcy filing today underscores the fact that some entire legacy industries need to be rethought. The Trib's problems were hastened by an over"zell"ous buyer who assumed mountains of debt in a declining industry while thinking he could buck the tide of change. According to VK's thinking, perhaps we should be providing bailouts to all the newspapers that will be going by the wayside in the next year or two.

Anyone who has thought about it will realize that the real reason for a newspaper's existence has gone by the board with internet news, blogs and the like. It's similar to the huge increase in web-commerce which is fast replacing the bricks and mortar model.

I would submit that the auto industry is perhaps in the same boat. A downturn shakes out the weak and inefficient and rewards those who have innovated and moved ahead with the times.

I was a plastics supplier to GM and Ford in the 70's and 80's and suffered through the 80-84 auto recession with them. Fortunately, only 50% of our business was auto related so we managed to muddle through. Many suppliers did not and went out of business. I dare say many of today's suppliers will be going out of business anyway because when the autos cut back 10%-20% it can translate to shutdowns at dedicated suppliers. Today's sales drops are dictating far greater cutbacks 10% or 20%.

I've rambled a bit but I think the bottom line is that times are changing in ways we dared not imagine just a decade ago. I'm afraid there are going to be a lot of bitter pills along the way. The auto industry re-alignment is just one.