As I think about our bailing out Detroit, I can\u2019t help but reflect on what, in my view, is the most important rule of business in today\u2019s integrated and digitized global market, where knowledge and innovation tools are so widely distributed. It\u2019s this: Whatever can be done, will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you. Just don\u2019t think it won\u2019t be done. If you have an idea in Detroit or Tennessee, promise me that you\u2019ll pursue it, because someone in Denmark or Tel Aviv will do so a second later.<\/p>\n
Why do I bring this up? Because someone in the mobility business in Denmark and Tel Aviv is already developing a real-world alternative to Detroit\u2019s business model. I don\u2019t know if this alternative to gasoline-powered cars will work, but I do know that it can be done \u201d\u201d and Detroit isn\u2019t doing it. And therefore it will be done, and eventually, I bet, it will be done profitably.<\/p>\n
And when it is, our bailout of Detroit will be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay….<\/p>\n