Job One

Does anyone still remember Roger and Me ? Michael Moore's 1989 film chronicled the filmmaker's attempts to interview GM chairman Roger Smith, whose efforts to streamline and downsize had shattered GM's hometown of Flint, Mich. Back then, shutting down plants, cutting benefits, and throwing workers on the proverbial street was depicted as the epitome of corporate heartlessness and greed. Now it is the policy of the Obama administration. Twenty years after Roger and Me , we are all heartless capitalists. We want efficiency, viability, and fast results, and we're not going to fritter away tens of billions of taxpayers dollars waiting for them. We've agreed that keeping dying companies on life support isn't the solution. But when it comes to coming up with a plan for what happens next to the workers displaced in the process, we are every bit as lacking in ideas as Roger Smith ever was. General Motors is in as bad a position as you can imagine. You've read about GM's enormous losses—last ... (link)