The Human Face of Retooling the American Economy

People talk about letting companies like GM die so newer, "smarter" companies like Tesla can come and fill the void. This is all well and good in the abstract, but what do you say to the thousands of laid off GM/Ford/Chrysler workers who have no other job skills. Luckily, the workers in this NY Times article have very generous union contracts that will keep them on their feet for 4 years, but unless they can retrain, they will be on their own after that. And, even if they do retrain few businesses EVER want to hire 50+ year old workers regardless of the strength of the economy. Needless to say, these poor people face a very steep road ahead.