Detroit is already way out on the massive pension fund “bridge” loaned to them by their employees… all of the “Big 3” are BILLIONS under-funded in their union pension accounts and have been for years. When the Big 3 go bankrupt, a large portion of the pensions that the car manufacturers have contracted to provide to their retirees will be paid for by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation – and probably by all US taxpayers.

Because the problem is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 23 billion in the red, is about to go bust itself. And when the PBGC goes under, the taxpayers will be in line to bail the PBGC out. (You can read more about what caused the economic misery of the PBGC here)

This is a rank violation of equity for several reasons.

First, while most of us have no pensions – just a few bucks coming from Social Security – the car manufactures have “negotiated” (in bad faith, in my opinion) with their union employees’ and continued to under-fund pension trust funds for the future payment of their worker’s retirement. But the government rules (read LOBBY all over it) allow big business to continue to operate – AND pay stockholder dividends - year after year with huge shortfalls in their pension trusts.

Second – While the non-union waged taxpayer never had a seat at the table in negotiations with the big 3, never had union wages or union health care, and will never have a union pension, that non-union tax payer will supply the tax money which will fund the union pensions via the Pension Guarantee Fund should the fund fail, which it is likely to do in the next few years.

THIS IS ALL WRONG. Isn’t the tax payer getting screwed? Of course!

Let Ford, Chrysler, and GM go bankrupt. They are inept with their finances, and they are inept with the production and sales of automobiles.

Their deliberate lack of engineering creativity – particularly environmental creativity - in their products makes it clear that each deserves to go.

And if someone tells you (or if you believe) that Detroit was making products that the public wanted …that Detroit had to build SUV’s and EXCURSIONS and HUMMERS because those were the cars that the public demanded…I don’t buy it.

Madison Avenue molds the consumers car desires into exactly what Detroit can produce on the same old car chassis “platform” and with the same old engine castings. Advertising money – pounded into our heads through thousands of TV and print ads – has us sucking up what is advertised. Not the other way around…car customers didn’t bring the design of the Hummer to Detroit and ask GM to build it. For example, “In 2006, the Hummer H3 SUV borrowed the same truck chassis as the GMC Canyon and the Chevy Colorado. It was just a short jump from the SUV with a truck platform to an actual Hummer truck”.

One more reason that we can’t “loan” more money to Detroit – what about the car companies like Toyota and Honda who build their cars in the US – how is it reasonable to support Detroit while not supporting Detroit’s competitors?

WHAT ABOUT THE LOSS OF JOBS? BUILD NEW WIND ENERGY GRID TO THE DAKOTAS!

Simultaneously with Detroit’s bankruptcy, let the US government, as it did in the Great Depression establish a North and South Dakota Authority (similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority) and immediately issue contracts for the installation of new electrical transmission lines between the Dakotas and Chicago designed to allow new wind generated electricity to be moved out of the Dakotas and into the national grid. It is estimated that connecting Chicago and the Dakotas would cost 60 billion dollars. The 60 billion will be repaid within 7 years through wheeling charges on the new wind generated electricity – and the globe will be cleaner and our international balance of payments more sound as we defer buying oil from abroad (and ship more coal abroad).

While many of the auto workers will be out of work, there will be tens of thousands of new jobs created to build the new infrastructure.

By getting the Detroit Dinosaurs out of the way, there will be space for other manufacturers to take new creative directions in transportation.

LET”S DO IT! Let’s go in the direction of building efficient, environmentally sound infrastructure, and not in the direction of supporting inefficient, environmentally and financially un-sound legacy manufacturers.