I'm not saying that I agree with bailing out car companies, nor the 1980 bailout particularly, but the notion of "setting free" talented labor pool is a little absurd in the case of the 2008 financial meltdown. It wasn't GMs fault that the entire financial sector that customers require to purchase their products was detonated by AAA rated products that were not at all safe. It was the government's fault for not regulating the banks, as well as the rating firms for not evaluating them.

The engineers would have been let go into a horrifically bad labor market where demand for mechanical engineers is zero due to expensive and unavailable credit.