[maxerickson]

The "GM" that got the money was already restructured, it is "new GM", the shareholders in old GM were wiped right out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motors_Liquidation_Company

Propping up GM legitimately helped hundreds of thousands of workers. Whether it was a good use of the money is a different question than that, but the money didn't go to shareholders, it went to keeping the operations going.

[SovietDissident]

It's impossible to tell exactly what would have happened in a bankruptcy, but the entire company would have almost certainly been restructured, which would have meant generally clearing out the dead wood: shuttering factories, renegotiating anachronistic/extravagant union contracts, etc.

Coercing private citizens to pay for mismanaged companies and subsidize the gold-plated pension benefits of Baby Boomer employees is utterly immoral.

[maxerickson]

If you click the link I gave up there, you'll see that it was reorganized in a bankruptcy.