The supposedly far left (for America) President offers billions of taxpayer dollars to a symbol of American industrial power. Despite bankruptcy, they make counter with an offer of the terms on which they'll accept a free money that is their only hope. Those who insist government doesn't give business enough taxpayer money call the whole thing socialism. Most bizarre moment? Right wing Senator and laissez-faire acolyte Senator Lamar Alexander drafting legislation to give every US taxpayer some of the GM and Chrysler stock, which is the closest thing I can imagine to nationalizing the companies. Corporate welfare is only socialism in this sense, which is a dream for those who see government as a servant of business alone, but anathema to supporters of legitimate socialism.

As for "too big to fail", that's part of the same philosophy, the one that said, "what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". I'm conflicted about letting it fail. The part of me concerned about the increasing degree to which America produces nothing but debt and little Americans is alarmed at the prospect of a non-existent US auto industry, particularly when the demise is, like the general demise of American manufacturing, laid solely on the shoulders of unemployed union workers who fought tooth and nail to stop US businesses exporting their jobs to countries with no human rights. The part of me who watched the nation respond to melting ice caps and dependence on oil from countries who sponsor terrorism against us by buying SUVs thinks the culture of consumption, luxury and planned obsolescence is embedded nowhere as deeply as Detroit and only drastic need will force production changes that became standard decades ago in Japan and Germany. The Big Three can keep telling us we want huge powerful gas guzzlers, but we no longer have the economic means to believe it, so it's time they had management that produced saleable cars instead of marketing fantasies.

Either way, however, throwing money into a money pit doesn't produce anything but more debt.