Right on, Bigby, even as late as the PT and the Jeep Commander, which I own and love, there was promise.

The truth in the entire industry, and we can even go back to the 50's with GM breaking the backs of the streetcar systems in many US cities, there has been a willful desire to consume our own tails.

When any entity begins to eat it's own, then the end is near. I saw it in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, in the fatal policies of the "new world order" of Bush41, and the debacles of NAFTA and CAFTA.

Remember, everything, including this current depression are planned events. Planned to destroy the middle class, bust unions, etc.

The goal is slave wages for all, so we can finally find out what it's like to work in a Chinese sweat shop.

Remember when auto workers could afford to buy the vehicles they built? And send their kids to college? And afford an annual vacation? All on one salary?

Well, corporatists, including those heading the big three were a part of this cabal, and are responsible for the outcome. A reorganization of the auto industry among others industries was inevitable given the current state of the economy. But always remember that this is being used as an opportunity to render us with less as a society as the end result.

American corporations began to eat their own when Reagan switched us from a tarriff based economy to one of "free trade" which as we all know is anything but free.

Unfortunately going back to a tarriff based economy will only be viewed as protectionist, not as sensible, which it is, and eventhough most other nations engage in it to this day, we'd be viewed as harming global trade policy.

Our only hope is to force our government to give us something in return for this planned affront to our stability as a society.

Free, single payer health care on the Scandanavian model, free education k-college, free utilities, and a permanent social safety net. Regulations on banks and corporations and capital gains taxes of 90% over the first 2 million bucks and no tax havens off shore- which by the way is how we used to operate after the second world war under Eisenhower.

If the 50's were the ideal times for most Americans, why not go back to the fiscal policies of that time? I'll tell you why, because the corporatists have decided a global interconnected economy is what they want- in other words, endless, unsustainable growth, where we never can be content with what we have- how we must build things to fail, erect buildings to last a decade or less, and generally throw away everything that has outlived it's usefulness and replace it with something less-than, and worse-than what came before.

This is why Detroit looks the way it does. This is why people are disposable commodities in our societies, especially our elders, and lately our youth as well.

How will things change? Take a page from the book our president learned from- take control of your destiny and don't look back. Believe in the rightness of what you do. Believe all things are possible. Believe in people and invest in THEM first. Education, health care, energy and sensible domestic policy. And finally, accountability. Without that, nothing meaningful will be able to take hold.