Those of us who think the industry should, in fact, be allowed to fail aren't espousing the view because we're mean. My being mean is simply a coincidence. My problem with the assorted bailouts is that a whole generation and a half has gone to work at American automakers in the 30 years since taxpayers propped up Chrysler. The only clear beneficiary of our largesse was Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, who became both rich and a celebrity keeping Chrysler long enough for Cerberus to buy it out and wreck it even more. Now we're going to collectively (get used to that word and the idea of collectivism, it'll serve you well over the next 4 years), pay $30 billion to avoid the job losses which would result from allowing the remnants of the Big Three to die.

I'd love nothing more than for every American who doesn't want to ride the rails with me to have a good job. Failing that, I'd like the government to stop insulting me by spewing money at any problem that lends itself to a commercial sound-bite can use in a campaign speech (e.g. "Kill the fatcats on Wall Street and give the money back to Main Street"). Bailouts make appealing television. The problem, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, is that our system of government is worse at spending money than anyone extant, save for every other government in the world.

Being in favor of rescuing every sick industry within our borders is not synonymous with being a patriot. There are those of us who believe the exact opposite to be true. We, the silent mass of some unknown percentage of the population, would rather suffer the burden of pain now if only to avoid the threat of our children coming home and proudly announcing they've gotten a job with one of these Doomed Enterprises ("it's got great benefits!"). I'd literally rather have my kids live on the rails than be cogs in a commercially pointless enterprise.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anyone with my belief system running for higher office this year. You may consider that to be a good thing. You could argue that the collateral damage of letting General Motors fail is too great a societal cost for us to bear. If we lived in a society in which I could be a true fiscal conservative in public without becoming a pariah, all I'd say in response is this: An entire generation of otherwise smart, capable people has gone to work at Chrysler in the three decades since Jimmy Carter Okayed the bail-out. The future of that generation plus of workers now rests entirely on whether or not the current government decides to stick taxpayers with yet another "investment" in the auto industry.

If you don't think we can do better than that, then you and I share a different vision of what this country could and should be.