As much as I hate this idea, I don't think the government can afford to let the Big 3 fail. I read recently that the auto industry accounts for 10% of the jobs in America, and at a time where companies are laying people off left and right I think that not bailing them out could prove to be disastrous to our economy. However, I agree that these funds should have very strict conditions tied to them and we need to have a viability plan for these companies to demonstrate how they will modify their business models to actually return to profitability in the future.

I agree. I think it's a shame that we have to do this, but think that the current state of the economy is so precarious that we need to bail out these companies. I am very afraid that we're moving into a socialist economy, but I don't see any other way to keep these companies afloat without injecting huge sums of capital into them.