Several broken promises and a few billion dollars later, it appears that General Motors (aka – Government Motors) will finally file for bankruptcy.  Instead of going the way of the Dodo Bird, GM will continue to hang around like a gangrenous limb.

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Naturally, or should I say unnaturally, GM will be saved from the cruel efficiency of natural selection where the most responsive to environmental change will flourish and the less responsive get eliminated.  I suppose this is a fringe benefit of becoming “too big to fail“.

Sure, the evaporation of consumer credit has hurt GM.  But a lack of consumer credit has hurt GM’s competitors as well.  As many experts will agree, GM’s issues began in the 1970s when gas efficiency became a global issue (thanks to OPEC’s oil embargo), but more so to GM producing cars that simply didn’t meet customer expectations.

Then again, I often wonder if a company with such a lack of business ethics should be allowed to remain in existence.   Much of the problems we face today as an auto transportation dependent nation originated from General Motors board rooms.  They single handily dismantled a working — and efficient — mass transit system throughout many of America’s largest cities to sell more of their product.  Of course, no one probably imagined that our freeways would turn into a slow moving parking lot at the beginning and end of every workday.

Below is a 55 minute documentary detailing the lesser known version of GM’s history I’ve been saving for a while for a special day — like the day GM would file for bankruptcy.  I would encourage even the strongest of GM’s supporters to watch it just to see how GM elbowed their way to the front of the line.

In the end, I partially understand why GM should be saved considering the economic viability and human interests viewpoints.  But in the interests of providing the most efficient “green shoots” solution possible, why can’t we make the most of American intellectual property and give the majority of the bailout money to a car company like Tesla Motors who makes the cars we want and need.

What we’re doing, in essence, is throwing the old dinosaur a lifeline saying he doesn’t have to die tomorrow.

[end rant]

Favorite Reads from the PF Blogosphere.

MoneyEnergy has a great behavioral psychology type article correlating the link between weight loss and saving money.  Got to love how the mystery of the human mind really works!

Debt Free Adventure discusses his ways of reducing his monthly bills and how he’s coping for life without Cable TV/Satellite TV.  Wish I had the discipline but I couldn’t live without my CNBC and Bloomberg.

Weakonomics discusses why the viewers of Jon and Kate Plus Eight are being scammed.  Never liked that show anyway, but I suppose when you have bad content and no story line, you have to create controversy any way you can.

Suburban Dollar has a good “hit the reset button” type of article with his 3 Financial Do-Overs.  If only life was as easy as an Xbox and you could only start over knowing where the bad guys placed the land mines.

The Big Picture has posted a real letter (not a BS promotional stunt) between a GM parts supplier and the President of GM’s North American operations.  Quite a read to see the parts supplier rip GM a new one and tell a few things GM probably didn’t want to be known.  Like a forklift driver who makes $85,000 per year.

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