Some people would call the latest auto industry news sobering.

U.S. auto sales plummeted 32 percent in October to the lowest monthly total since January 1991, led by General Motors Corp.’s 45 percent slide, as reduced access to loans and a weaker economy kept consumers off dealer lots.

Ford Motor Co. reported a 30 percent drop in car and light- truck sales from a year earlier and Toyota Motor Corp.’s declined 23 percent. Honda Motor Co.’s slid 25 percent, Nissan Motor Co.’s were down 33 percent and Chrysler LLC’s fell 35 percent.

So here it is: the “entirety of the U.S. auto industry – automakers, suppliers and dealers – has now asked for government help to survive the economic downturn.” That’s right, companies that once made record-breaking profits – while their executives looked down their nose at the rest of us – now want Joe the Plumber and his friends to pay for their plant retooling and their years of slipshod management. And once again, the same old threats are trotted out:

Without credit, “we risk significant losses to motor vehicle demand, employment, and component and material production capacity,” said Bob McKenna, MEMA’s president and CEO, in a statement.

As I wrote 2 1/2 years ago, the auto industry’s high times were going to come crashing down. I noted that when the debt problem became unsustainable there would be major angst from the debt addicts among us, as well as the profiteers of the credit bubble. The profiteers cannot bear to think, for a minute, that their boom times have come to an end. It is embarrassing to see these fools get on their knobby knees and beg the government to give them taxpayer monies.

Surging sales, booming profits, upside-down business models – sorry gentlemen, your high times are over and you have got to get back to the boring basics of R&D, innovative engineering, and manufacturing quality products that are in genuine demand from consumers. In the meantime, fail you utter fools.