The Senate rejected the auto bailout bill (which had no trouble getting through the House) tonight.
I think I would support an auto industry bailout. At least the version in my head.
Features of my fantasy plan:
- rigid environmental-impact goals (stuff about emissions, electric-not-hybrid engines)
- research, research, research: into alternative energy sources, better production methods, any form of evolution-prompting science (the US always benefits from scientific exploration!)
- educational provisions for workers to learn more skills, in order to spur innovation from those closest to the work as well as give them overall career security
- swift innovation goals: new features/capabilities/improvements at a rapid pace (of course this calls for organizational changes that would allow it)
- limits on executive pay in the form of modest base salary + performance-based bonus
- revised procedures for negotiating with unions
- maybe other stuff. I forget for now
There are two reasons I’d support a bailout with those features.
1) 1 in 10 Americans works for the auto industry or something related to it, and our economy cannot handle that scale of unemployment. Disposable incomes and therefore consumption is contracted so much already and the federal government is already too far in the hole to pay out more unemployment/welfare.
2) Pouring money into the Big 3 has the potential to create huge long-term gains for the US. If the auto industry in this country evolves - and evolves quickly - we can once again be competitive on the global market (which I don’t believe we have been in many many years). Early establishment of comparative advantage in a newly developing field would create long-run economic growth. More money, more jobs, more prestige for our inflated egos. 
Let’s see what happens with this. I’m pretty sure some kind of aid will be delivered; the bankruptcy option isn’t really an option because the US doesn’t often let shit of that magnitude hit the fan. I don’t think this situation is quite entirely different from anything we’ve seen before… but of course we’ll see.
