It's not the Big Three, It's Capitalism

Picture this not entirely absurd scenario; Washington bails out the big 3 auto makers giving them the money they need to stay open and keep producing cars. No one is really buying these cars, thus the reason they're in this hole in the first place (Market share of American auto manufacturers has been steadily decreasing for decades). The manufacturers keep pumping out cars because they have the money and doing this is how the workers get paid. The cars pile up on lots. Ultimately, time and energy is wasted, materials and resources used up, and nothing of any use has been produced.

This is the end result of all capitalism. Capitalism inevitably leads away from utility, as the system puts more emphasis on the dollar, which should only ever have been symbolic of its ability to transfer to real wealth, that is material goods, then on the actual material produced and the benefit it may have for society. Rather than producing what society really needs (an efficient, high-speed, non-polluting transportation system) it produces what attracts more symbolic little pieces of paper (or more often today, symbolic little electronic bits in an accounting system).

On the reality front, it isn't about making cars, it's about providing the ability for people to get from where they are to where they want to be in a timely manner. On the capitalist front, it's about how much money you can earn for share holders. These goals are increasingly divergent.

Look at how the recent economic downturn has affected recycling. Recycling is in major decline because it is no longer "cost effective". What does cost effectiveness matter if your world can not support you, and you die? Recycling isn't just done because it's cost effective, that's just why it gets done in a capitalist society. Recycling should be done because it minimizes waste and allows us to reuse materials that, while sometimes abundant, are none the less finite, and because in many cases the amount of energy used in recycling is less than in extracting raw ore and refining it.

In a capitalist society you can't do things for long if they don't make money. If it came down to saving our species and losing money or dieing off and making money, we'd die and leave enormous bank accounts behind.
From this perspective, what is the real importance of a dollar? What is the real importance of living?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the current problems are apocalyptic in any way. They're not. Our economy will recover this time. People out of work will work again and the world will go on. This is neither the end of our society nor the end of capitalism, but capitalism is incompatible with sustainability. For all the talk recently about sustainable energy, none of the companies with the resources to act, or the government agencies with the authority understand what sustainable means, nor do they want to.
It would mean a few too many rich and important people would have to give up their power and the great difference in wealth between themselves and everyone else.

And for the record, sustainability does not require poverty or the end of technology. It depends on technology and can create a society in which all people have access to the resources and means of production to have material wealth equal to that of today's moderately rich.
This isn't a utopian dream. It is well within the realm of technological possibility, based solely on the technology available today. It is mathematics and engineering and that is all.