How many times have you heard politicians accuse the Big 3 automakers of “not making the cars that people want to buy”? I, for one, am tired of hearing it. I’m not an apologist for bad management decision making in any industry, but nobody in Detroit ever wanted to build cars that wouldn’t sell. Unfortunately, the titans of industry wannabes in Congress think that they know what cars people want better than industry management. Indeed, they think they know better than the people themselves! In a nutshell, Detroit would be delighted to build cars you want to buy, it’s the politicians who want to tell you what you can drive. So the next time you hear some politician say Detroit doesn’t make cars that people want to buy, paraphrase it this way: “Detroit can’t make money building cars designed by Congressional committee that nobody wants to buy”! Think of that marvel of German engineering/central planning, the Trabant. Or the Yugo. If Nancy Pelosi has her way, Detroit will get a bailout all right, but it will come with so many strings attached that you’ll be wishing you could buy a Trabant!