If you only have time to read one column about the new rescue plans for General Motors and Chrysler, read this one. The writer quickly lays out the developments in the industry over the past three decades, explaining how the current situation has been inevitable. "It's hard to imagine the mind-set that produced this sort of thing will change just because the workers will become the owners, albeit indirectly," he writes.

It's been a long time since Employee Stock Ownership Plans were considered to be a credible approach to management. Even the self-interested ESOP Foundation is skeptical of the Chrysler situation.

I first became familiar with the ESOP concept while reporting on the domestic steel industry, which had several employee-owned companies back in the days when union workers were the ones most determined to keep some plants or companies operating — even though they had their own security ahead of the companies' interests. Such plans have been applied in the airline industry, too, and seem always to get a tryout in situations when no investors are willing to take on the risk of ownership as long as a powerful labor union is in place.

There are examples of successful employee-owned companies, but in manufacturing industries I'm unaware of any examples of these: a large group of workers has different interests than a committed investor. They just can't be expected to show the patience, to take  risks with their own fortunes, or to accept the unwelcome choices that go with ownership — especially in industres that demand lots of cash ... cash that workers usually expect as their compensation.