there was an interesting interview (Fresh Air? NPR?) with Lee Iacocca and several economists about exactly that back in Jan or Feb- would the gov't bail out GM a la Chrysler? The universal answer was no, at least no more than they helped the airlines after 9/11. The reason given by all was that, although a national asset in terms of mfg capacity, our economy is simply nowehere near as reliant on heavy manufacturing as it was in 1981. It would doubtless be a tragedy on a huge scale, but the loss of GM (which ain't gonna happen anyway) would be nowehere near as crippling as the loss of Chrysler 25 years ago. We have moved on, so to speak. GM is sooo 2nd Millenium, after all