Ford Motors announced yesterday that it will make a $3 billion profit for 2009. Neither GM nor Chrysler will make any profit whatsoever. It is instructive, I think, to recall that of the "Big 3" automakers, Ford is the only one who did not take federal bailout money or succumb to the lash of federal regulation. All Ford did was do business.

At some point, evidently, Ford executives made an important decision - one every American and every American institution needs to own. They determined that they and they alone would be responsible for the wellbeing of their enterprise. That meant they would have to plan carefully, know the market, give up sacred cows, and make the best products for the most reasonable price they could. And, apparently, they have - without any assistance from the Obama Administration.

It's interesting to speculate what our economy might look like today if, for example, all the other American institutions - including the federal government - had made that same decision. Instead, we have irresponsible corporate executives, dependent citizens, and an all-too-eager federal government throwing off their God-given responsibilities and throwing the economy - and the nation's future - into the lap of the worst possible manager: Washington.

When do we say enough is enough? When do we decide it's up to us to be responsible people in our own spheres according to our own obligations and abilities? The way things are going, people who refuse to take responsibility for the lives - and the consequences that go with responsibility - will too late discover that they are feeding a Jaba the Hut government that eats and eats and gives back only reluctantly - if at all - whatever it consumes.

This is contrary to the purposes of the divine economy, so it can only fail. Let's make sure we learn a lesson from Ford and not contribute anything more than is absolutely necessary to this doomed project.

T. M. Moore