I say No, No, NO to bailing them out. By them I mean the CEOs and other top executives. Unfortunately, any failure of GM, Ford or Chrysler will NOT have much effect on the company execs making millions of dollars a year, but will devastate the men and women who actually do the work. I think I would be OK if I ost my job went this year If I brought in 28 million dollars last year.

In fact, they will probably lay off thousands of workers and garner a bonus for themselves. Even if they get ‘fired’, they still leave with huge severence packages. That’s the gig to have. Be a CEO for a major company and screw up. You still walk away with more than most people make in a lifetime.

So, in order for about 3 million people to remain employed, my bailout plan would stipulate the companies adhere to strict policies before getting any help:

1. Reducing the salaries of the CEO and Executives to no more than twice the highest salary of any non-executive employee.  Including stock options and any other benefits.

2. Require the liquidation of any assets not directly used in the manufacturing and shipping of the product.  This means selling off the fleet of airplanes and any other extra perk.  Even flying first class would have saved about $19,000 on the round trip to Washington.

3. Require a top-level restructuring plan be approved by Congress.  Cut redundant executive positions first.

4. Require a detailed accounting of how any bailout money would be spent.

5. Require a payback term of no more than 10 years.

There are a lot of sanctions we could and should put upon any company requesting public funds to save their ass.  It was mis-management that got them into this in the first place.  I don’t hear American-based foreign automakers whining.

Post your ideas to comments.