So November sales are down 41%, and the cash burn proceeds unabated, only waiting for the other shoe to fall when suppliers stop fronting product in the hope of payment.  So what does Detroit do?  It goes to Washington to play the “too big to fail” card.

What’s another $34 billion?  There are hundreds of thousand of lives on the line, from workers to suppliers to salespeople to mechanics, all of whom have suddenly discovered that the gravy train could stop abruptly.  And they’re scared, as well they should be.

Congress, on the other hand, thinks that it can play the car game better than Detroit.  After all, don’t we elect representatives based upon their combined knowledge of sound business practices and good taste in vehicles?  If the survival plan appeals to lawmakers, then the Big 3 will get their bailout.  Where’s Lee Iacocca when you need him?

The relative merit of saving the pain that will be felt throughout our economy, not to mention the one remaining holdout of the American industrial base, versus letting the tired, old, arrogant giants fall, has valid arguments on both sides, even if we ignore the United Auto Workers view that the $25 an hour its members get over non-union shops has nothing to do with the problem.

Few doubt that Congress will hand over the cash.  After all, it’s not like it’s their money, and it’s only $34 billion, after all.  In weighing the relative pain, the particularly hard feelings of those affected will far exceed the generic anger at yet another bailout of corporate America for what has been clear to most American’s for the past quarter century, that we don’t make cars that people want to buy.

It calls to mind the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

The problem here is that neither option seems to have much of chance of succeeding.  Certainly throwing money at carmakers whose cash burn rate, combined with its turnaround time for new products, suggests that it’s a singularly foolish idea.  On the other hand, the top management of Toyota and Nissan is unlikely to offer Detroit much instruction in how to manufacture cars that meet the needs and desires of Americans.  Does anybody really believe that Congress is up to the job?  Really?