Bezos runs a business that he started at the perfect time and now dominates the industry -- internet sales.

GM and Chrysler, two companies requesting bailouts, dominated their industry 40 years ago.

In 40 years, when a new massive recession hits, do you not think that the then CEO of Amazon.com will be requesting bailout funds to keep America's only internet sales company going?

-- Full disclosure; I worked at Amazon.com including writing code that runs the distribution software in Lexington.

Mike--

I believe that's the POINT to the article; auto makers MAY have be responsive and adaptive 40 years ago, but have proven that they no longer are.

Maybe Amazon will prove to be in the same boat 40 years from now, or maybe it will continue to be well-run.

Just because a company is old doesn't mean they aren't good companies now--I still buy P&G detergents, etc, etc.

If the Big Three automaker CEOs had been using Amazon's philosophy, they wouldn't have been caught with their pants down when the Prius hit the market. It's no accident that it still takes a serious wait time to get one because Toyota can't build them fast enough.

Yes, there's a market for big SUVs and enormous trucks. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that producing only that and ignoring all small car technology is a bit shortsighted. Anyone interested in a reliable small car buys Japanese. Not because of price... similar American cars are cheaper. But American compacts and subcompacts are crap, and everyone knows it.

This didn't have to be a buggy whip manufacturer situation, but the big three CEOs made it so. They could have diversified their market, and built high-quality cars and trucks that people want to buy. But even in the SUV and truck market, a Toyota or Nissan is more reliable and lasts longer. Kinda irks me to bail them out for producing substandard products that no one wants.

I worked for Amazon in Seattle from '99-'01. Around October 2000 we started seeing corporate escorting some Indian fellows around the offices, but they assured us it was no big deal -- our jobs were safe. So we did our usual yeoman's work over the holiday season (which extends well into January to handle returns). Then in February they announced the layoffs. So we were all lame ducks for several weeks -- and then we all got 20% raises for our last pay period. This was closely followed by a press release bragging about how much he was saving in payroll costs by sending our jobs to India -- using our new pay rate as the point of comparison.

There are some who say the jobs were lost in response to threats of our unionization. We were approached by a union but did not vote to join it. I don't believe the two happenings were related -- the push to unionize was a last-ditch effort once the writing was already on the wall. Our tech staff had created a customer service system that was massive but elegant, and advanced fiber optics made it exportable. Ta-daa.

Unfortunately, amazon is closing three warehouses, one of which is nearby and probably the reason we get almost instant delivery. I am not pleased.