It's hard to feel sorry for them.

Certainly, we here at The Thin Green Line don't want anyone to lose their job.

But as true believers in sustainability, we can't help but whisper a little "We told you so" at the looming demise of the auto industry's most conspicuous symbol of gas guzzling lunacy -- the Hummer.

Because the universe is rarely lacking in irony, we think back to the person who made the Hummer popular in the first place, now-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who, as we all know, has transmogrified into one of the nation's greenest and most progressive governors. Go figure.

Anyhoo, as if we needed any more examples of the ripple effect the collapse of the auto industry can have on our economy, we recently stumbled across this article in The New York Times (from which we shamelessly stole the cool photo above, so cool it almost made us want a Hummer) about how Hummer's pending demise is affecting it's largest dealer, based in Missouri.

In reality, most people who bought Hummer's use them in places like in this photo at right, smoothly paved suburban streets on which even a scooter has no trouble.


Those are the people to whom dealers like Jim Lynch sold the illusion that you could create the persona of a rugged, outdoor lifestyle simply by spending enough money on the floor of a fancy showroom.

And now, as the Times article points out, the risk he took is turning into a big loss.

In the end, any bet that is placed on an unsustainable product or practice is destined to lose. And the idea that we could forever support a vehicle that gets 10 miles to the gallon when there is a finite supply of oil in the world and most of it belongs to people who hate us, is definitely unsustainable.

The real tragedy here is that when that bet finally goes bad, too often it is we, the taxpayers, who are holding the marker.