If GM had indeed gone out of business, GM's competitors would have filled the vacuum in no time. No vacuum can exist in a capitalist economy. If there's a market it will be filled in no time flat. The bailout of GM was a bad idea and a bad precedent. GM's competitors are already building plants all over the U.S.; the latest being Volkswagen. Why?; because we have the skilled workers with a higher productivity rate than in all of Europe, and we don't get 3 month vacations.

If GM went out of business it would have been the end of an era, but not the end of the world. Except for maybe the UAW if they couldn't adapt to the new reality.

And we could have saved ourselves billions of dollars in the balance.