The End of an Era?

Today the Senate committee sent the Big 3 Automaker CEO's back to Michigan empty-handed. Unless something happens soon, these last vestiges of American manufacturing may be disappearing. Some, Republicans in particular, say that they should be forced into bankruptcy to make them reorganize into more efficient operations and create more fuel efficient vehicles. To them this is the absolute answer. No government bailout.

There is a danger in this route. First and foremost is the ripple effect it may have on the U.S. economy. Untold numbers of businesses and jobs may very well be lost, sending the already major economic mess into a deepening spiral. There there is the ultimate disgrace. In their restructuring the Big 3 may very well decide to sell. Who is licking its chops waiting for the opportunity? China. China desperately needs the technology to produce better vehicles, and where best to get it, but from the good old U.S. of A. They already hold billions in outstanding debt paper, so they might very well be able to pull it off.

Then, of course, the Japanese produce vehicles in this country only because they can't compete as well, if they only produce them in Japan. If the Big 3 go under or are gobbled up by the Chinese, there is nothing left to keep the Japanese plants here. Like the Chinese, Mexico is circling the campfire waiting for it to burn down so they can come in and lap up those Japanese plants.

If this scenario takes place, this country will have taken a big step toward further denigration of its world economic status. As it is right now, the world no longer sees us in the same light it did 3O years ago. We are no longer a world leader in so many areas. The last eight years under the Bush Regime has seen our status as a world diplomatic leader tank. Just as the English world empire faded into the past, the U.S. as a true world leader may very well become a shadow of its former self much faster than anyone imagined.