Viability is a word much in the air these days. Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson first used it to describe a pre-condition to government aid for the Detroit-area Big Three automakers. House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) talked about it ad nauseam. The Senate debated it and declined to put taxpayer money at risk. Then President Bush, overruling Republican Senate stalwarts and his own Treasury Secretary, coughed up a bridge loan of $15 billion, and gave the Big Three auto companies until March 31 to come forth with a plan to establish their long-term viability.

There is a certain surreal quality to all the arguments justifying taxpayer financing of the failing Big Three. Widespread and concentrated unemployment in the Michigan-Ohio-Indiana Rust Belt is always cited. That is a valid concern, and it was already happening long before the recession aggravated and highlighted the problem. Why this long-term decline is concentrated in the three states is not a mystery.

On the other hand, automotive employment has been growing in...