So what the Hell does an “Op-ed Columnist” for the New York Times actually do anyway? What are their credentials?

Bob Herbert writes yet another illuminating piece that breaks down the enormous economic ills of our nation into microcosmic tearjerkers about some guy named Joe and his cousin Louie.

If you don’t recognize him by name, Bob Herbert is the columnist who evoked Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles a few months ago by implying John McCain’s Celebrity ad was actually a subliminal message saying all black men, like Obama, are nothing more than trailer park pimps. Read it here.

This go around, Herbert interviewed world-renowned economist, Rich Breen, who took time out from his hectic schedule of “car hauling” in the Detroit suburbs to make an official statement concerning the failures of the Big Three auto industry:

“The community around me is deteriorating before my eyes. I hear people saying if G.M., Ford or Chrysler shuts down it wouldn’t affect them. They have no idea. It would have a domino effect that we’ve never had before in the United States.

“The bottom would fall out and the ripple effects would go all over the country.”

I had no idea. Thanks for the update, Rich. Bob Herbert was also fortunate enough to get an exclusive interview with the “Sage of Missouri,” Darin Gilley.

A bankruptcy would be like a hurricane blowing through the U.S. economy.

Those winds are already taking a fierce toll. Darin Gilley is a 45-year-old father of two young girls who lives in Pacific, Mo., about 30 miles southwest of St. Louis. He worked in a plant that made seats for Chrysler vehicles until he was laid off at the end of October. He’s also president of a U.A.W. local that represents employees in a plant that makes dashboards for Chrysler.

“You can’t let this industry go down,” Mr. Gilley said. “It would be catastrophic. I’ll tell you an interesting fact: auto parts supply is the number one industrial employer in seven states, including Missouri. And it’s a top five employer in 12 other states.”

The auto industry is embedded in the very heart and soul of the United States, a nation in which people travel by car with the natural ease of birds flying. Think of service stations, body shops, tire distributorships, car washes.

The natural ease of birds flying? You must be joking.

The American auto industry is failing for the same reason the housing markets crashed: too many unqualified people are tainting the waters. Union workers demand wages that aren’t economically feasible, the quality of American cars is less than their Japanese and Korean counterparts, and yes, CEOs run their companies into the ground while raking in salaries and bonuses by the hundreds of millions.

Why is this so difficult to understand? Whatever the Big Three companies are or are not doing, doesn’t work. Repeat: doesn’t work.

There is no “letting the auto industry fail,” they’ve accomplished that on their own. The real question is whether or not tax dollars are going to continue to prop up a failed industry that refuses to run efficiently. If we keep that up, all of us will fail.

Let the auto industry file bankruptcy so successful companies like Honda and Toyota can scoop them up and show them how to run a business.

Finally, Americans have seem to lost their instinct for survival.

While Mr. Breen and Mr. Gilley offer compelling stories of the typical American Heartlander, eagerly awaiting the outcome of a Big Three bailout, they never fully explain why it is they allow themselves to depend on an industry that has been on the skids since the late 70s.

Of course both men could simply adapt to the rapidly evolving world economy by taking some computer courses at their local community college or by applying their mechanical ingenuity to a more recession friendly enterprise like beer, but I guess that just makes too much sense.

It’s so much easier to bitch and moan to Bob Herbert at The New York Times.