An Afternoon Tea Party might provide Answers to Common Sense Questions-

Teaparty raises an excellent question regarding my post..
While acknowledging that "there are no answers to your questions" he/she asks the question, "What should we do?"

Actions, in my model, should spring from thoughts, which should develop based on principles- ethical, moral,spiritual, economic, and others. Therefore, before we get to a discussion of possible actions, we should discuss the underlying thinking, and digging deeper, the core principles. One of the core principles should be integrity and another should be clarity in stating one's position.

If we are "free-market capitalists" then we should let the chips fall where they may. In the short-term there will be major job losses and dislocations but new markets will spring up- that's the thinking. The Big Three might go bankrupt, might restructure, and perhaps one of them might emerge in a strong position to invest for future products. The labor force will be impacted, but that is no different from the impact of other dislocations- the disappearance of typists when word processing software took over, or the disappearance of pay phones and long distance operators, for example.

One of my core principles is seeing that everyone has basic living means and access to health care. Another is to leave, in aggregate, within one's means. A third is to support, to the maximum extent possible, others who are less fortunate, irrespective of cause. So, asking the wealthy to pay more to support the creation of new industries, with no expectation of "personal financial returns" is reasonable.
I recommend that readers watch an interview with Mohammed Yunus-
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec06/yunus_11-22.html