[work_account_2]

Paying it back is great and all, but it shouldn't have had to be done in the first place.

[Mikeb85]

It shouldn't have. But the pain the economy would have felt would have been 10X worse.

Banks supply capital to firms, the government bailed them out (and the automakers) because no one else was willing to supply capital to get the economy rolling.

[gaius]

Sure. When are the automakers going to pay back their bailouts?