PoconoNews.Net

Here’s what the Big Three auto chiefs should done:

Leave Detroit, together, each driving a different car. Caravan to six dealerships, three in the morning and three in the evening, as they made their way east. One for each company, you see.

Maybe, pick up a different vehicle at each dealership, run through each line, and drive to the next big dealer. Over the course of maybe three days, arrive in Washington. Drive the cars to the Capitol. Park there, and walk into the building with the union chief and some auto workers as the cameras recorded the scene.

Should have done but didn’t.

Instead, each one of them – yep, each one of them – flew in a company jet to Washington to beg for taxpayer dollars. Incongruous is what it was.

And maybe, the end of any hopes of getting some $25 billion in public bailout money for the automakers. No one to thank but themselves.

Meanwhile, the economy continues to tank. It is simultaneously bad, and not so bad. Our standard of living – for most people, even the poor among us – remains amazingly high. Our troubles, in the scheme of things, are minor. Some people who really should have stayed renters will again be renters.

On the other hand, new unemployment claims are skyrocketing. The housing market is two years away from even reaching a floor. Retirement savings for those who have it are shrinking by the day. At least every day the market is open, that is. How many days can the Dow drop 400 points and still amount to anything?

I guess we’ll have to wait for the new president before it’s two chickens in every pot.

While all this is transpiring, we seem to be bent on adopting what is really a European, socialized approach to the economy. Is this truly the best approach to get us out of this mess? Is France going to lead the way?

There is no question, as they say on Capitol Hill, that “mistakes were made.” But the idea that the solutions to our current mess are going to come from Europe defies belief. The European record of growth, job creation, business creation and opportunity is hardly something we should seek to emulate.

A moot point, now. If we think private industry screwed things up, wait until Washington’s had a chance to run things. Then we’ll really be in a fix.