I fell asleep to the radio last night, hearing the dreaded "b" word – bankruptcy – discussed in the context of General Motors.

The number one car company in the US is in trouble: stock is lower today than it was a half century ago. Market share is shrinking. To address this crisis, GM has already announced all kinds of cutbacks — another series of cuts was announced today — including a 20 percent payroll cut for white collar staff; the elimination of health care for some retirees, and the suspension of the annual stock dividend. GM still has 24 billion dollars in the bank, but is eating through it at the rate of a billion a month. Ford has a reported 50 billion – but also seems stuck, unable to plan a recovery.

Everyone’s saying the obvious — the electric car that Detroit killed years ago needs revival. But at the current pace of private development, electric cars won’t be close to readily available until 2011. And then they’ll be super expensive.

So how about this — retooling production’s one thing. Another option might be to retool the ownership of some of these companies. I know: shock, horror; perish the thought. As Naomi Klein says, the sort of options other countries’ leaders bat about are not even on the radar here. So how about a thought experiment. A change-seeking candidate running for public office with a large and well-organized movement of voters behind him or her. From the bully pulpit of the campaign we hear a plan to assist Detroit that lets the public sector invest and the public benefit from some of the profits… It wouldn’t just boost morale among workers, it might boost treasury coffers too.

Imagine the stump speech: WE CAN TURN AROUND DETROIT AND JUMPSTART A NEW ENERGY ECONOMY! LET’S MAKE IT THE START OF A NATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIVAL! AS GM GOES SO GOES THE NATION!

I said I fell asleep. I guess I was dreaming too.

The F Word is a daily commentary by Laura Flanders.

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