Too 'Big' to Ignore?

Last night, President Barry proclaimed that "the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it" in reiterating his unwavering support for Detroit. Our Chosen Changer sounded every bit More of the Same in falling back on the 'too big to fail' line. It's a tactic that's sure to succeed, as is virtually anything that sounds the least bit scary or unpatriotic these days. But what, exactly, are the qualities that make a select few companies -- Big Three automakers and a couple humongous banks -- 'too big to fail'? There's a logical argument for rescuing financial institutions -- if there aren't any lenders left, how will we buy houses/pay for college/build Burger Kings? But the carmakers? Purely political. Obama and the majority of congressional Democrats don't want to be known as the cats who 'killed Detroit,' which is exactly what Republicans and Rust Belt Dems would paint them as.

But 'too big to fail'?! Please. They're already halfway there: Over the past eight years, GM and Chrysler (Ford's passing over the taxpayer pot o' gold for now) have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers and shut down dozens of plants. Assuming Congress doles out another $21 billion, GM will jettison another 47,000 workers by the end of 2009, bringing its global workforce below 200,000 -- less than half of what it was in 2000. Meanwhile, scads of outside suits stand to make a collective $1.2 billion should GM finally realize its destiny in Chapter 11. Detroit's leaders created this predicament by sitting around guffawing about all the crazy shit an F-150 can tow while Nissan and Toyota developed cars that actually make sense in a 21st-century sort of way. And now D.C. is counting on us to bail them out.

Not surprisingly, our president and federal representatives seem far less concerned about the cataclysmic state of the newspaper industry (as if papers still had the resources to investigate every back-alley horsetrade going on inside the Beltway). In the last three months, the owners of the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune have filed for bankruptcy. The New York Times has laid off newsroom folks. And today, the Hearst Corp. revealed that it is considering shutting down the SF Chronicle after the paper lost a cool $50 million last year (thanks, Craigslist).

Let's recap: Our tax dollars, intended for schools, Social Security and Medicare, are instead funding war and delaying the seemingly inevitable demise of U.S. automakers (you don't just whip up a better Prius overnight). Meanwhile, San Franciscans may soon have to wait till their Bay Guardians and SF Weeklys come out to find out who won that ballgame last Tuesday. Not even Chris Daly could be happy over the specter of this.

Enough ranting for one week -- we'll try to come up with something a tad more heartwarming for next time. Not rescued puppies/sassy underage cancer patients heartwarming, but something.