Jobs are going to be lost in Detroit, regardless of whether there's a bailout: there's a big inventory of unsold cars, and a lot of people who suddenly can't afford to buy cars, so factory lines are going to shut down, period. Giving the car companies a big loan, or even a big gift, won't change that unless they take the course of "run a factory to produce cars that we know we can't sell," which would be even worse management than they've shown so far.

If you want to keep the workers afloat, it would be much simpler and more efficient to give the money directly to the workers, e.g. through unemployment compensation. Which will happen anyway, so why do we need a bailout?

The rhetoric I've heard from Detroit CEO's and Democratic Senators keeps talking about a car company "failing", but (IMHO) intentionally conflates two notions of failure: bankruptcy and ceasing operations. A car company can file Chapter 11 without necessarily costing ANY jobs (although layoffs MIGHT turn out to be the best way out of the situation). It strikes me as another case of terrifying the public in order to get what you want, just like the invasion of Iraq.

I have to admit grudging respect for those Republican (and a few Democratic) Senators who act as though the free market meant freedom both to succeed AND to fail.