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The American auto industry has been in crisis for the last 30 years. Once viewed as a grand solution to early 20th Century horse droppings on the city streets, an old pollution problem morphed into two new ones - global warming and high gasoline prices. Even the supply of oil has dwindled below the world's half-way mark, where blind government policy has enabled the enemies of America to control prices at the pump.

US automakers, however, have more immediate problems. Cash has always been king, but more so now; and the lack of it has tied the hands of Americans to buy their products. The worldwide drop from 17 million units per year to 10 million in just a few months took them by surprise. Why? Were they not watching the markets? Had they not read the book, "The Black Swan," where events at the outer edge of the bell curve are indeed probable and cannot be ignored?

Now the cash burn rate has eroded the US corporate savings accounts to bankruptcy levels. Ford even mortgaged its logo. GM's "Plan-to-Win" failed to realize the need for speed also applies to change; and Chrysler still plays the robbed victim by the raiders from Stuttgart, while its own private financiers won't fork out any monetary support.

For sure, legacy costs and job banks are key issues, but the real culprits, in my opinion, have been a lack of vision and an aversion to real internal change. GM and the UAW, for example, missed the opportunity to reorganize along the Saturn agreement. Instead, GM played like the Borg of Star Trek and assimilated Saturn while the UAW went back to a traditional contract. I know; I was there when it launched and when it died as a separate entity. GM and the UAW needed to advance beyond technology. They needed to address more than products, processes and bonuses. They needed to perfect their corporate character as a team.

This time, styling alone will not save GM, Ford and Chrysler. The mountainous playing field will have to be bull dozed by the American companies themselves. A government loan can buy some time, but it will never create parity. Legacy costs, benefits and pay will have to be addressed immediately. Failure is not an option. There are too many lives at stake; there are too many linked industries thanks to lean manufacturing, as those who supply the Big-3 also supply the transplants.

For sure, the transplants always had the support of their governments, including those of the US southern states. Keep in mind, though, world treaties rewrote the rules of business that enabled the disparities; literally forcing companies in the late 20th Century to adopt globalization, ready or not.

Japan learned to adapt to the global game by playing the cheap currency card, literally reorganizing its old warfare by a new name business. China, on the other hand, learned to play Capitalism patiently, while retaining its political system. In the end, they will kick out the foreign investors.

I can't help but cut the hypocrisy in the Washington air. Money is available for management types like Wall Street, but not for the US automakers and labor. State money is available for transplants, but not to non-union labor. Need I remind Americans who donated most to the economy after 9-11? It certainly wasn't the transplants!

Perhaps when it comes to money and survival, all corporations are merely citizens to be used by world governments to achieve their own agendas, just like the rest of us. Nevertheless, the US automakers survival depends on their ability and speed to reorganize on their own in 2009. If not, they will not see 2010.

Learn more about this author, Frank Sherosky.
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