&gt; Right, but the USA bailout of the auto companies seems to have been a good bet. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were saved, and the companies bounced back and paid off their debts, and the USA was able to sell its stake in GM at a profit.<p>According to a link in the article the government lost over $9 Billion. I live in Metro-Detroit, saw plant closings, saw waves of dealerships close, watched whole car brands die, got my hours cut and watched delayed work hurt a lot of people around here.<p>Just because GM and Chrysler go into bankruptcy sans the gov doesn&#x27;t mean all those jobs disappear. Yes, GM and Chrysler would take a cut (which happened anyway) but I think they&#x27;d also get reorganized better at the very least.<p>From what I&#x27;ve heard the reorganization that took place was not nearly enough. Chrysler has a mandate on the minimum number of workers needed for some contracts. This leads to situations where Chrysler is paying for 4 people so 1 person can put in half a day at a 3rd party supplier. I have stories for days.<p>The real tragedy in all this is a new better company could&#x27;ve started in Detroit. Instead, due to Zombie GM and Chrysler continuing to dominate the market, all the automotive engineering talent is slowly migrating to Silicon Valley.