As of May 5th, your household’s share of the GM bailout was roughly $135 (see “What’s a Billion?”) Today, according to an accounting done by the Wall Street Journal, your “contribution” to GM and its former subsidiaries has shot up to well over six hundred bucks. That’s a very large increase in a very short time.

Meanwhile, Ford, the lone U.S. automaker standing on its own two feet, reported a second quarter profit of over $2 billion. While Ford’s profit is the result of a one-time gain due to debt restructuring, the company is nevertheless coping with the downturn better than its rivals.

As I’ve spoken to dozens of CEOs of struggling companies over the past several months, one of the silver linings I repeatedly hear about the current economic situation is the fiscal discipline it has imposed on their operations. Day after day they’ve had to come up with strategies to make their companies leaner and meaner–strategies that will serve them well long after things pick up. That’s how the free market works, and all of us (as consumers) are the beneficiaries.

GM has sucked some $70 billion of precious capital out of the private sector, but I doubt it’s the better for it. Innovation is a function of motivation, and there’s nothing more motivating than the threat of going under. No one may be throwing your company a lifeline, but keep swimming. Once you can stop to catch your breath you’ll be amazed at what good shape you’re in.