Delphi reflects bankruptcy of industrial welfare state

Thomas Bray has some pointed words:

Detroit laughed at the upstarts, but now GM's market share has shrunk to 26 percent of the U.S. market from well over 50 percent. The ranks of the United Auto Workers have plunged from 1.5 million in the late 1970s to 654,000 last year. Staggering losses have replaced profits, even amid a robust national economic recovery.

National health care isn't an answer. If it were, Europe would be No. 1. But so costly have Europe's welfare states become that unemployment is far higher than in the United States.

Some future political leaders might learn from downsizing in the private sector.