What might happen without a Big 3 bailout

How many jobs are at stake?
GM (GM, Fortune 500) has about 120,000 U.S. employees. Ford (F, Fortune 500) has about 80,000 and closely-held Chrysler LLC has about 66,000.
In addition, the three automakers have about 14,000 U.S. dealerships that between them employ another 740,000 workers.
The suppliers used by the Big Three also employ an estimated 610,000 people.
Add that up and you have more than 1.6 million jobs tied to the auto industry.

We know that our current economy can not absorb 1.6 million jobs, an excellent economy couldn't do that.

-So lets do the math......

• 1.6 million jobs and lets say that there is an after tax average of each worker making 40k/yr.
• With unemployment you get ~60% of your salary and let's just say for 1 year , which is 24,000

For a grand total of $38,400,000,000 in unemployment pay tied to the auto industry alone.

This is not including other government needs like medicaid for those that no longer have nor can afford health insurance.

This is not including a trickle down effect that will happen to the suppliers of the auto makers, the business in the town that these plants are located in. The towns and states depend on the tax revenue. The aftermath of letting the big 3 automakers go under will cost taxpayers exponentially more than a 25 billion dollar loan. Not to mention that this will again send panic through Wall Street and the financial markets.