What's Good For Toyota Is Good For America

Standing the old axiom about GM sideways is Thomas Friedman's NYT piece that it's about time Toyota bought out what's left of GM:

It is not that I want any autoworker to lose his or her job, but I certainly would not put on a black tie if the entire management team at G.M. got sacked and was replaced by executives from Toyota. Indeed, I think the only hope for G.M.'s autoworkers, and maybe even our country, is with Toyota. Because let's face it, as Toyota goes, so goes America.

Having Toyota take over General Motors - which based its business strategy on building gas-guzzling cars, including the idiot Hummer, scoffing at hybrid technology and fighting Congressional efforts to impose higher mileage standards on U.S. automakers - would not only be in America's economic interest, it would also be in America's geopolitical interest.

The way GM is going, I could think of worse fates. Detroit and Michigan might not like their new nihongo masters, but what choice do they have? Auto industry executives have historically been rather arrogant; the point of bankruptcy is to undo such arrogance.