Why don't We the People give the Big Three contracts to build railroad cars and streetcars?

UPDATE: Freidman continues to put all his bailout eggs in one green technology basket, talking about what he calls "Car 2.0." I'm talking about Detroit 2.0.

SINCE I WAS A KID, my immediate family has owned 12 BMWs, 3 Volvos, 2 Alfa Romeos, a Mercedes, a VW, a Fiat 2100, a Rover 2000 TC and a Triumph TR-4. Obviously I can understand why Detroit's market share in the US went down to 42%. So I was glad to hear President Obama say he won't simply bailout the Big Three and let them carry on as usual.

Tom Freidman wants us to nationalize the Big Three and turn them into clean, green car machines. I don't think that's a good plan either. As Obama says, there's little reason to think that the US government would do a good job making cars, and I think the old model of buying a new car every year is over (not to mention not green). Plus, in the middle of a recession, not many people can afford to give up their old gas guzzlers when they have so little resale value.

But as momentum grows for the idea that infrastructure money should be spent on things like rail rather than roads (and even neighborhood centers), how about the idea that we the people give the Big Three large contracts for railroad cars and streetcars? We should have a lot more of those, and we're currently buying them from other countries.

All the state DOTs are used to privileged positions for feeding at the public trough, but we don't need any more highways. We need high-speed rail (much cleaner and greener than airplanes), light rail and even boulevards for the light rail to run on. For fifty years, we've been giving traffic engineers money to build auto sewers that ruin our cities and blight our countryside. As we reinvent the way we live, we need to reinvent the way we move around. Our cars and our sprawling way of life are the biggest reason why we're number one in pollution and oil depletion.

V&V: Roger Rabbit Does Detroit

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