and just to be clear I am not a big fan of the US auto makers or automobiles in general. I think mass transit and more environmentally sound methods of transportation should have been more forcefully introduced long ago and my understanding of the big three is that they fought especially fuel standards vigorously and at great cost in real terms. Still I have more sympathy for them than the banks, they were asking for much less money and immediately offered greater concessions to be considered for the loans they needed. On top of that it seemed to me that this really became about busting the unions who in their heyday also made some mistakes but new workers coming into the industry are at pay levels that cannot possibly support a family and not nearly the benefits of those in the past. Also not to bail them out would have thrown a tax burden on us anyway in the form of gov't backing of promised pensions and health care. There was a lot of misinformation that got put out there for spurious intent imo, the most aggredious being the 75usd/hour wages that the workers were supposedly making.
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