This is what happens when the government “invests”  tax money:

NEW YORK/DETROIT, Sept 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. government is likely to take a loss on General Motors Co [GM.UL] in the first offering of the automaker’s stock, six people familiar with preparations for the landmark IPO said.

Subsequent offerings of the government’s holdings may be profitable depending on how investors trade the newly listed stock, the sources said.

But the question of whether taxpayers are ultimately made whole on GM’s $50 billion bailout could be left open for years, the people said.

It could take more than three years for the Treasury to sell down its remaining stake in GM after the IPO, one person said. That would push a final accounting into the next presidential term.

A decision to price the initial GM shares below the cost to taxpayers would follow the usual Wall Street practice of giving the first investors in a new stock a discount, but it could also help allay investor concern in the face of the slow recovery of the U.S. economy and flat auto sales.

But how will they allay concerns about investing in a company that screwed over insured bond holders in a sham bankruptcy filing? GM still has the same UAW problems that lead to their bankruptcy and are now being forced into producing eco-cars that there will be no market for. Anyone who invests in this company deserves to get screwed.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, they have already gotten screwed and there will be no way to recoup our losses.