[Porsche-O-Phile]

One way or the other, the UAW has to be killed off. Whether it's done by some sort of bankruptcy with a "new" company coming out of the ashes or by government intervention (never happen) or some sort of buyout, it simply needs to occur. I'd say the blame for Detroit's failure is split more-or-less right down the middle - about half attributable to idiotic, short-sighted and boneheaded upper management decisions and about half to the UAW for creating an entrenched culture of corruption, exploitation, abuse, phat salaries, benefits & pensions completely inconsistent with the value of worker contributions, etc.

So upper management needs to be gutted and overhauled and the unions need to go. I think if those two things can be accomplished (by whatever means necessary), we've got a shot to keep some manufacturing here in the U.S. If not, we're going to lose one of the few manufacturing sectors we have left that hasn't been stolen away by the Chinese...

I disagree that a bailout is the right way to do this though. I think letting the companies go under, shed their union obligations and have someone buy up the pieces and "start over" is the only real way to go. Nationalizing the auto industry will fail miserably.