Mortgaging our future for.... what?

General Motors is pleading with Congress for a bailout – that is, they want money from you and me, $50 billion worth. It’s time to call your lobbyist – he goes by the name “Congressman” – and say we’re out of cash, too.

Not-nimble General Motors is in trouble mainly because 1). It’s building too many gas guzzlers nobody will buy now; and 2). Its costs are out of line.

These problems are merely worsened, not caused, by the poor economy.

The economic meltdown is a recent phenomenon, but GM’s woes have been going on for years. Three years ago, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian told GM to slash its pay schedule, particularly at the executive levels, and sell off its Hummer brand, which makes trucks that go through gasoline “like nothing else.”

GM didn’t, and now finds the value of the brand so low that it may not be worth selling. (Don’t get me wrong – if you want to drive a Hummer, and can afford the gas, more power to you. It's just that GM's bad bets on a perpetual market demand do not a national crisis make.)

And GM costs need pruned. For example, American auto manufacturers have more dealerships than Japanese companies – dealerships that cost money in extra delivery charges, advertising and support. A year ago, the Detroit Free Press reported those extra dealerships cost American manufacturers $436 per car.

GM is big, but it’s just one of 17,000 companies that more or less make up “big business” – companies employing more than 500 people.

Small businesses create 75% of all new jobs, and more than half the workers in this country work for small businesses. If GM does seek bankruptcy protection – instead of a bailout -- it will open up new avenues for it to become more like a modern business, and allow it to restructure some of its costs.

At the end of the day, we cannot borrow our way to prosperity. This economic crisis is going to hurt, and America cannot soften the blow for every large corporation facing liquidity problems.

The automotive industry is different than the banking industry, where every business has to go for capital. The automotive industry is huge, but not systemic. And this is a good place to draw the line and say “no.”