The real cause of the GM Failure is actually the lack of common sense of the Republicans. They keep blaming the UAW while the actual largest reason is the Republican position on Health care.

The Republicans refuse to look at the facts. The other countries that are taking away all our manufacturing, including the auto industry, have government run health care. That gives them a competitive advantage over the US.

And, if anyone believes they won't stick to their position until we have no manufacturing left in this country they are fooling themselves.

The final irony in this is that the big corporations that really build things support the Republican nuts that are putting them out of business.

Go Figure.

Actually, FYI, my last visit to the "DMV", which in Illinois is actually run by the (Democratic) Secretary of State, I took a vision test, renewed my license, changed my official address, and got a new photo, and was in and out within 20 minutes.

Perhaps government-run institutions are a hassle or inefficient or incompetent when they are run by "small-government" afficionados like FEMA was under Brownie, but government can be run well if you actually want it to run well. See Thomas Frank's The Wrecking Crew for a detailed essay on this very topic.

If the taxpayers still own a majority share of GM in 3 years, then I will say we got a bad deal.

However, if in 3 years they are profitable, and the taxpayers have received their money back by selling off their stock, in part because the UAW workers were given a strong incentive (as owner-operators) to make it lean and profitable, then I think you will need to eat your words.

Come to think of it, if GM fails when run by "free-market" incentives like profit sharing for the workers, you'll have to eat your whole philosophy, so if I were you I'd be rooting for them to succeed.

"Is America ready for a frank and open discussion without all the stupid name-calling and mischaracterizations?"

I am. But what's to say?

GM failed as a business. They've been failing for 30 years. The government gave them $20 billion recently, and now they're chapter 11.

We'll never see that money again. And I'm sure government will keep shoveling money at them for decades. It's not like their suddenly going to zoom into profitability next year--there's no one with the dough to buy their cars right now.

Not to mention that government's propping up of private business has been one of the chief means of keeping our "economy" functioning. That's what we've been doing with the war industry for at least 80 years.

So without any name-calling, I consider this a "resolved" issue. Certainly not to my satisfaction, but then, things are almost never resolved to *my* satisfaction.

What is it with the Republicans? They just won't be happy until the last party member walks out the door. They slam "union cronies" -- the people who elected Ronald Reagan president. They slam Sotomayor, thus pissing off Latinos. These are huge parts of the "middle" of this country!!

Ford had essentially the same contract with the UAW as the other two US auto companies did. You can't reasonably lay the blame for this on organized labor's doorstep. They were only one side of the bargaining table, and they certainly weren't in the board room when the decisions were made to "go big" for at least the last four + decades.

Steele's press release is unreadable, and the RNC video is unwatchable. People will look back on this time and say that what the country really needed was competing ideas about what to do about our many problems.

As for the government ladling money into GM. Recall that the UK once had a huge auto industry, many car manufacturers. Now it has almost none. The same will happen to us, but we're only prolonging the pain (and expense) by propping up GM.

As for Fiat and Chrysler. What about the billions Daimler lost by buying into Chrysler? What about the fact that Americans have had plenty of opportunities to get interested in Fiat's wares, and have never nibbled? What about the culture incompatibility between Chrysler and Fiat? It'll never work.

Topic: "So it's socialism. So what?"

Nah. I didn't think so either.

Meanwhile let the conservative mouthbreather complain about the prospect of socialized health care out one side of their mouth, and the fact that American cars cost more to make because of health care costs out the other.

Of course all of this is done without a trace of irony.

And remarkably, as a previous poster has pointed out, the American public is proving to be not quite as stupid as the Republicans think they are.

Republicans, by virtue of mere affiliation with their party are not to be believed on any subject at any time.

They are, at best, disingenuous, and manipulative prevaricators when they not acting in an outright criminal manner.

Their philosophy, approach to life and culture have proven to be a detriment to our society as a whole. This can't be disputed at any level and no credence can be given them.

Republicans never have our country's interests in mind or at heart. Any claim to such is outright political posturing and always insincere.

Owners with no business management experience.

In case you didn't notice, the current economy is chock-full of "business management experience." GM, like every other big company including Ford, has a surfeit of "businessmen" who are "experienced" in "managing" ... and all of these MBAs have managed our economy right into a big smoking hole in the ground.

"Management" as a skill is, to put it mildly, highly overrated. What matters is knowledge and experience in a particular business. Let car people manage car companies, computer people manage computer companies, pharmaceutical people manage pharmaceutical companies, etc. Pretty much every time some megacorporation puts its fate in the hands of some bozo who doesn't know anything about the company's core business but thinks he knows how to "manage business," disaster follows.

If GM's bankruptcy means that more decisions will be made by assembly-line workers and automotive engineers, they've got a shot. If decisions continue to be made by overpaid suits who know nothing about cars because they leave those details to their chauffeurs, then the bankruptcy proceedings are only delaying the inevitable. We'll see how it goes.