If the auto companies fail and actually close will anyone mind?

Not me. That’s the result of making an inferior product. The unions guaranteed their workers nice high wages, but the companies supplied us with horrible cars that couldn’t even remotely stand up to the likes of toyota, etc… They screwed over America long enough.

My stepmom will mind: she’s a nurse at a GM plant, and while she doesn’t make the cars, her job is directly related to patching up the people that do. My brother in law will mind, because he puts them together and needs the money to feed his kids. And the places where the autoworkers spend their money – the grocery stores, the Targets and Kohls, and the Applebees’ and corner bars will mind, as they close up and send their employees away in a chain reaction. I live in SE Michigan, and the auto industry is huge here.

If the car companies had put more folks on R+D of small, efficient cars instead of SUVs, there might not be that kind of trouble now – but SUVs were selling. The engineers working on the efficient cars were given second-class treatment here, unlike in Japanese firms, where they had esteem. That much is the car companies’ fault. Perhaps they have learned.

The immense amount spent on worker (and mostly retiree) health care is dragging them down like an anchor. If they were able to put money into engineering rather then retiree health care, they might make a better product. One thing people might not realize is that German and Japanese firms are able to put that money into R+D because worker and retiree health care is taken care of by their governments’ socialized health plan. In a very real way, the better cars from other countries are subsidized by those countries’ taxpayers. Socializing medicine in the USA would go a long way to making the US automakers more competitive.

However, as we have seen from the collapsing housing bubble, an industry in the toilet doesn’t affect just that industry, or even just that region. A mass employment-fail in the Midwest will affect the whole country, both by people moving into other regions for jobs, the increasing number of people needing government assistance (which we all pay for), and the chain reaction as other industries don’t do as much business and have to lay off their own workers.

Whether they think so or not, I think a lot of people will end up minding, and the adaptation will be slow in coming.

When bad things happen often times it inspires good.

In this case I am hoping that they start over and provide us with the car of the future at a price everyone can afford. That is the way Ford got started in the early 1900’s

I think you can get some sense for how much people care, based on what they currently drive. A good number of people have simply said – other companies are making better cars (where their HQ is doesnt matter; where they actually make the cars probably also doesnt matter).

All the bad news is just making it worse for these companies anyway. People who were on the fence and wanted to “buy american” must be thinking – do I want to buy a new car from a company that might fail? what will the resale be? what about support? So there are probably a growing number of people who may not care. Some stats from Edmunds, show how quickly the big 3 are declining:
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/01/29/394075.html

Far worse however, is the following scenario: auto companies take taxpayer money and still struggle or fail. Then I think even more people who have supported them will want a pound of flesh.

Laureth, I learned a lot from your answer. Thank you!

@deepseas72 – I try. Very often, situations that look very simple on the surface are complex underneath.

The first thing I thought about was the ancillary industries. I remember when American Motors closed up in Kenosha, WI, back in the early 80s. It affected so many other industries in the area, and companies that made things to go into the cars were hit badly. It was awful. And frankly, I don’t think that part of the state has fully recovered from it. Same with Flint and Grand Rapids, MI.

Well, I suspect that parts and service will be harder to find and more expensive when you do find them.

And resale value will plummet.

And a huge number of people will hit hard times, and not just in Michigan.