The auto industry got its own package:$25B in "loans" to design new cars.
Folks, as cruel as I sound, we cannot continue to fund, loan or bail out ineffecient industries.
It's the same as you owning a 1948 power boat. You spend $12K per year (mostly for custom made parts) maintaining the boat every year. You do this because you love the boat, it belonged to your Dad and you just can't stand to live without it. Then you meet a girl. She loves riding in your boat. You fall in love. You get married. The day after your wedding, you discover your wife finds out how much the boat really costs. She doesn't share your enthusiasm for the boat and refuses to spend another penny on what she perceives now as an eye sore.
That is our money that just got loaned out for the equivalent task of maintaining your 1948 boat. Actually, it's our kids and grandkids and great grandkids loaning the money to the auto companies, because we do not have the money. We've already mortgaged the farm, the Grand Canyon and a few other trifles. We, the People, Of The United States of America are now in the business of funding non-competitive business models, using credit. We are loaning money we do not have to businesses that are failing. We are told we will get paid back. We'll see.
The world is cruel. I've been competing against kids in India and China for years that earn far less than I do. I had to figure out how to exceed my customer's expectations and present a better solution. The car industries need to figure this out also.
For me, a 56 year old, it means dedicating 15 hours per week to learning new technoologies. Learning a new technology does not mean learning buzz words, it means grinding through it and being able to do something useful with it. It also means spending a substantial amount of my income on books, software and occasional hardware for the new technologies. It also means burying my preconcieved notions about what was important and concentrating on being the best provider I can be for my family. The pressure of foreign competition caused me to get better at my craft and I mean GET BETTER CONTINUOUSLY. I didn't want to be one of the thousands of developers I see whining about H1B visas. So far it's paid off and I am happier. One of my customers talked about the consumer surplus he was getting for being a customer of mine. I hadn't heard the consumer surplus term since my Econ 101 class. (He grinned as he disagreed to turn some of his consumer surplus into producer surplus.)
Just in case you think the game is not rigged: Congress Has 43,457,362 Reasons to Help Goldman Sachs