Yes, you are right, especially in southeast Michigan. Very large numbers of companies have in one way or another something to do with the auto industry. If any one of the big 3 goes down, it'll drag down lots of the suppliers with it. Since many of the suppliers supply all 3, if a few of the key suppliers are pulled under by 1 OEM, it'll be hard for the remaining 2 as well because they cannot survive on a broken supply chain. From there, the destruction ripples out like a shock wave, ruining everything in its path.
Now that said, I don't know if it's a good idea to prevent big 3's bankruptcy at all cost. They just have too many bags on their shoulders. It's like a forest that hasn't had a fire for 100 years. The ground it covered with 6 ft deep fallen leaves, littered with dead trees, and dry branches. It makes fire prevention harder and harder. Eventually, it'll reach the point of being impossible. The only way (and nature's way) to solve the problem is to have a forest fire, burn the junks out, and start anew. That fire would be the bankruptcy.
But of course no one wants to be in the forest when the fire burns. Unfortunately I am right in the depth of it. The poll shows that 60% of the Americans is against a bail out. I don't blame them. If I were else where, I'd be against it also. But to survive, I have to hope for a bail out.