Big Bang

In a universe that continues to expand, I still find myself subject to the panic about the way things change. The breakup of General Motors is consistent with the laws of physics, at least the way we understand them now. The idea that something could sustain its mass and size over time is part of an imaginary static universe, not the one we live in.
All of these little pieces that have been gathered together: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling will eventually be scattered across the galaxies, or at least our planet. It took one hundred years for the beast to grow this big, and now it will take just a matter of weeks for it to shrink back to a more rational and manageable size. It cost billions of dollars to keep that hulking monstrosity alive until it began to wobble and fall apart under its own weight, and it will take more billions of dollars to stabilize it and keep it from tearing a whole in our galactic economy.
There was a time when our telephones acted this way. Perhaps you remember the old AT&T. The one we used to call "Ma Bell." The Bell System became the largest largest corporation in the world and survived for nearly one hundred years before collapsing under its own mass in 1984. That's when the company was broken into pieces, Baby Bells, that continued to connect our calls and charge us ever larger bills for the privilege of telecommunications. AT&T in its new form would like to swallow up your Internet and cable TV as the pattern of expansion and contraction of the universe continues its pattern.
Is it inconvenient? You bet it is, especially if you own stock in any one of these companies that disappears in the wink of an eye. But it isn't forever. We know that mass attracts mass, and eventually gravity and cash will draw these corporations back together. You only need to be patient, in galactic terms.