Roger is right, as usual, with a caveat: some of the Big Three make really nice cars & trucks in one way or another: GM more reliable, but less stylish; Chrysler weak reliability/ flashy designs; Ford somewhere between on both. (Check out Consumer Reports ratings.) However, cost v. value is the killer. Even if GM sold every car they could build they would still lose money. Ford/Chrysler just a bit behind. As Walter Williams points out, bankruptcy is not destruction, but rather recycling productive assets to more efficient use. Chapter 11 will be painful, but inevitable.

On the larger economy: recovery will begin when the big players are sure it will not get worse. That means injecting liquidity wherever needed: banks, insurers, credit unions, etc. It does not mean more consumer cash, nor public works projects, a la Works Progress Administration (WPA) (known then as “We Putter Around.”
Seems unfair, but reality can be that way.