In contrast, Democrats from states where GM has high concentrations of employees are desperate to infuse cash into the company. But although the messenger may be biased, what the Republicans in this instance say is correct -- surely the money could be used to fund other jobs in other economic areas, rather than extend charity a company that seems uncertain how to restructure itself to move into the future. Also, there is another, biased reason that GM may be particularly reluctant to declare Chapter 11: bankruptcy destroys the value of GM shares, and many members of the executive board are GM's chief shareholders. Without guided restructuring by an outside authority, which is essentially what bankruptcy is, will GM be able to reinvent itself? The answer seems, very likely, to be no. And perhaps the claim that no one will buy a car from a bankrupt car is the most outmoded notion of all. GM's demand for more money to prop itself up and its fear of bankruptcy forgets how many ordinary Americans...

What could be more American than reinventing yourself, one must ask of this all-American company. "There probably was a time when a well-publicized bankruptcy would, in fact, have destroyed the viability of a brand. But…those who now make up the heart of the consumer market -- have largely dispensed with the mythology of the infallible institution. Transparency and reinvention, rather than stability and regality, are the more valued assets in an economy where entrepreneurs expect to stumble more often than they succeed and where employees expect to have to change jobs (if not careers) multiple times. In the fastest-growing quarters of the economy, admitting your failures and remaking yourself is the new American work ethic" (Bai 2009).
Works Cited

Bai, Matt. (2009, March 25). Totaled? The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2009 at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29wwln-lede-t.html?ref=business