"As Detroit continues to shrink, many American jobs "lost" will be regained in this industry, and its American suppliers, as Americans continue to buy cars."

Americans are not continuing to buy cars, in anything like the numbers they have been. Mr. Will seems to be engaged in some magical thinking to believe that most auto workers laid off from American auto makers will find similar employment in the near future.

As of 2007, the Big 3's market share was 57% of the US market.

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2007/10/us_automakers_los...

Unless demand has also dropped 57%, it's highly likely that more jobs will be created in the automotive industry.

They won't necessarily be hiring the people laid off by the Big 3, but automotive jobs will be created.

Whats the alternative? Supporting systems where unskilled workers can still earn $30/hour despite living in an increasingly knowledge based economy?

I think this is a done deal since Obama and Pelosi have already agreed to prevent bankruptcy of the automakers.

Here's the lead of a just-posted NYT article on the state of the negotiations (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/business/21auto.html?hp):

"Democratic Congressional leaders on Thursday said that the executives of America’s foundering automakers had failed miserably in persuading Congress or the public that $25 billion in aid from the government would be well-spent and they gave industry leaders 12 days to come back with a plan showing otherwise."

Also note that Rep. Dingell of Michigan has been unseated as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and replaced by Rep. Waxman of California. In other words, one of the auto industry's best friends in Congress is no longer the gatekeeper for a key committee.

I assume some kind of bailout is inevitable, but I'm hoping that it will have significant strings attached.

I'm hoping Congress pulls a switcho-change-o where they call it a bailout, but it is merely a large-scale bankruptcy proceeding with a different name and some token capital.

I'm not stupid enough to hope for this very hard, but I'm hoping.

I could definitely see them doing something like - you declare bankruptcy, we'll backstop credit so that you don't have to liquidate.