Think for a moment about your use of the term “greedy creditors.” If you loan a buddy $100 until payday, does it make you “greedy” if you expect to be paid back?

I hope you’re right about Chrysler being able to pay back the government money. But a lot of things have changed since the first Chrysler bailout thirty years ago. Foreign automakers now have much more well-developed sales channels in the U.S., starting with assembly plants staffed by non-union Americans. And this time, the financial crisis extends far beyond the auto industry, to the entire economy — meaning there are fewer people with money to spend on ANY new auto, let alone on small Chryslers that are both overpriced and under-equipped because Chrysler can’t make them profitably with its bloated cost structure.

That’s what I was thinking, that if they go on strike, they’ll be doing so against their own union. Either the snake is eating itself, or the UAW has everybody (workers, politicians, taxpayers) right where it wants them.