The world of driving Miss Daisy is over.

The current economic crisis is increasing the chaos in the North American automobile manufacturing sector, as millions of cars go unsold. North America is faced with a tremendous oversupply in auto manufacturing capacity that continues to grow worse.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are in Washington begging for $25 Billion from the US government or they will be unable to continue operating. Their subsidiaries in Canada are asking the federal government and Ontario provincial government for $3.5 Billion in hand outs to rescue their manufacturing plants in Ontario. The federal government has already pledged up to $450 million for the auto industry, according to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Now, should our government continue to bail out the failing auto sector? Realistically, it all depends on what happens in Washington, but for what it's worth, here are my thoughts:

Prime Minister Harper, this isn't your daddy's little recession. Things aren't going to go back to the way things worked in the 1950's. The future of Canada's auto industry is going to change and it won't look anywhere near what it does today!

In Gary Mason's Globe & Mail column, Premier Gordon Campbell said, "he's concerned about the economic future of provinces such as Ontario because, he thinks, the tendency will be to say "how do we get back to where we were before. And there is no before any more. It's always going to have to be about the future. So [Ontario] has a big challenge and they are going to have to restructure their manufacturing plants and think about how you add value."

While that might seem a little cold-hearted, especially coming from a premier whose province has not, as yet, been walloped by the economic crisis, I take his point. Why should $15-an-hour retail clerks and $22-an-hour mill workers in B.C., or anywhere else for that matter, subsidize - in the form of a bailout - an automobile industry that pays its workers $70 an hour just so they can continue making cars and trucks no one wants?

So then, what should governments do?

First off, don't send anymore money or loans to the Canadian auto sector.

Sending money will not stop the steady decline that has been going on for over 40 years. North American car companies have for decades designed cars that people don't want. The Canadian Auto Workers Union have also added to these problems by being increasingly inflexible and unrealistic in their contract demands, which made it harder and harder for North American firms to make a good car at a competitive price. Echoing Premier Campbell's comments, why should the average Canadian worker earning a wage of $20 per hour send their tax dollars to subsidize the salaries of Canadian Auto Workers Union members earning $70 per hour?

Secondly, bankruptcy isn't such a bad option.

The Big Three will not completely disappear if they run out of cash. A bankruptcy would allow the automakers to restructure highly unproductive labour contracts and benefits packages that have made them uncompetitive. Here are the three things that would happen; The Big Three could emerge leaner and more competitive. Or they could merge and become the Big One. Or they could end up being owned by Toyota or Volkswagen. These are all reasonable outcomes, and bankruptcy would just speed it along.

Finally, there's no economic justification for a bailout.

You tell me, how does sending more cash to the Ontario auto sector make the rest of us better off?

Obviously it helps autoworkers and executives; indirectly it slows the bleeding going on in Ontario economy. But there's suffering involved when any business sector goes through a crisis. For example, BC's forest sector is being devastated by the mountain pine wood beetle, resulting in thousands of layoffs. The oil and gas industry in Alberta is being hurt by declining world commodity prices. Governments can't solve every problem and they can't subsidize every job for life. Things happen, the future brings technological and social changes; ultimately, the strong survive, the weak go bankrupt, or they merge or they're bought up or an entirely new technology replaces the old. These same things will happen to the big three automakers.

I believe that taxpayer's money should be invested into places where a failure would otherwise spill over to the rest of the economy. While the auto sector is big part of the Canadian economy it isn't the dominant part any longer. The auto sector contributes only 2% annual to Canada's GDP and employs 130,000 workers or 1.1% of total employment. Saving the automakers won't quicken the global economic recovery, and leaving them to deal with their problems on their own won't hurt the economy anymore than we are already feeling today.

At the end of the day, taxpayer's money should be better spent elsewhere.