The big three fuel an entire ecosystem of companies who would fall like dominos, and if those fall then we suddenly have a good portion of 1.1 million workers on the market for jobs when employment is scarce. Further, those people have mortgages, and seeing 400,000 (wild-ass guess) fail within 2 years as these individuals can't find jobs, much less jobs paying what they were making before.
That affects consumer confidence, and other industries struggle further.
It's possible to argue that the entire US economy needs restructuring and a depression is the necessary medicine, but you're looking at a lot of heartache when it happens, on the order of post-WWI Germany.
Keeping the big three alive would make sense if it was the first time it had happened, and it was a matter of time and liquidity before they would be back on track. Unfortunately it seems that they are unable to compete in the global arena, and that this is a structural issue, not a liquidity issue. The only thing that will come from a bailout is a few more years. The money would be better spent reeducating all those people that are soon going to be out of a job anyway.
Regarding your last comment: I just read a comment thread on Reddit about credit cards that I frankly found disturbing. It seems like it is the norm in America to use credit cards for major purchases, in between job money, end of the month money etc. etc. and it doesn' seem that anyone finds this problematic. I think you will be forced to structurally realign your economy in the next few years - spending money you don't have isn't a viable long term strategy, and that's basically what the average American has done for the past many years. All the bailouts in the world won't change the fact that the basic problem is that America is consuming more than it produces. It'll only add to the debt.
