With the US situation, you guys are forgetting that the cost to the country if those car makers went tits up would be far in excess to that spent on hte bail out and it would effect way more than just the immediate companies, whole towns would fold and the poverty would follow on.
It seems that the govt have accepted the bailout not to keep the manufacturers open as the primary issue, but the implications if they were to close...
Arent there alot of trems and conditions linked to it tho.
I agree that the gov should not prop up failing businesses but in the case of the US it was waranted. Australia is not by any stretch in the same boat as the US. The govt could always look to buy into the companies as they did here.
I think that if it was Qantas mainline then the Aust govt would probably look differently about keeping the national carrier flying tho.