See, I take the bus and so I don't have any patience with Big Oil and Big Auto.  I'd like to see Congress take the Big Three over by calling in the money that they already owe the American people and then taking over the assets, the plants, the real estate the way that any takeover mogul does and then re-tool all those plants -- and make and design efficient public transportation systems.   That has to be cheaper for you and me than handing them more billions.

Big Oil and Big Auto have always been for the easy money, the quick fix and the fancy packaging.   THEY HAVE NO VISION and THEY DESERVE TO FAIL!! 

I personally hope that one day the sight of a drive-through window will elicit the same disbelief that the scenes in forties, fifties and early sixties newsreels show people smoking in church! at the hospital! in college classes!  The waste that it represents, in energy, in health, in any sense.

But Big Oil and Big Auto have never wanted to persuade people to do anything except pull up the train tracks and destroy the neighborhoods to build bigger and bigger highways.  (Never mind that the bridges the highways lead to can't be widened and so they crack under the stress of the increased traffic and weight.)    And they have done a wonderful job of persuading people not only to love cars, but to see it as their bounden right to own a car.   And that gas prices should never go up because it's not fair!    Everything else costs more, but gas costs should remain the same?  I don't understand that.  

( Just an aside: In a world with diminishing energy resources, why should anyone take a plane from New York to Boston, or Baltimore, or even D.C. ?   Cincinnati to Dayton or Chicago or Columbus or even Cleveland?  A decent and efficient train service would mean no trips to the airport from downtown, no wait while you're searched, abundant cabs and even buses taking you to downtown locations because you ARRIVE DOWNTOWN!

 Taking a plane doesn't always get you there faster and it's far more stressful to you.  Why not settle back in a train seat (lots more room)  where you can use your cell phone or your laptop for the two to four hours the trip takes?)

In the heavily populated areas of the world, the people have to travel long distances on poorly operated mechanical transportation.  Rickety buses, etc.  As these countries, India and China, Mexico begin to move into production to sell us consumer goods, they will be looking to improve their infrastructures and have efficient transportation that works in their climates! where current cars and trucks  don't work so well! The United States could be the place where important and useful and profitable work in this area could be begun.  

Congress should call the loans of these companies and commit their assets to the American people and and a true manufacturing effort that will enrich the world.

 In popular literature, third-world revolutionaries always want American weapons.  It would be nice to be exporting something else as well. 

You know, just sayin'.  YMMV.