How I would have handled the bailout

[MuffinSticks]

What a ballsy furfag, that sombercat. A round of applause for the man who actually did it.

[Rooster]

The first and last stipulation would have been that until the loan is paid off, every single employee of the company would earn the same salary.

Nope, wouldn't work.

For example, someone in higher management who is responsible for overseeing an entire division of labour probably works twice as hard as other employees (say for example the IT Department)

This Communism is broken. Please fix it.

[A dude named Vince]

I don't this country is going to get back on its economic feet without a major overthrowing of some sort. That's just me though.

[Steve the Pocket]

Nope, wouldn't work.

For example, someone in higher management who is responsible for overseeing an entire division of labour probably works twice as hard as other employees (say for example the IT Department)

This Communism is broken. Please fix it.

Not to compare you to these people, but I've read a lot of comments from certain people in the right wing complaining that the government shouldn't be imposing any rules on the companies that are receiving the bailout, because it's "socialist" and "authoritarian." They seem to be unaware that no matter how severe the conditions of the loan may be, the following points still apply:

(1) Acceptance of the loan in the first place was purely voluntary. The companies are choosing to accept the loan, just like they chose to make the risky loans that got them into this mess. Granted, imposing new rules after the fact is a dick move and possibly unconstitutional, but for the purposes of this discussion we're pretending these terms were laid out ahead of time.

(2) Everything reverts back to the status quo once it's been paid off; nobody's expecting the companies to continue running this way forever, unless they decide it's somehow a better deal for them. Those people you mentioned who are suddenly being paid the same amount to do more work now have a vested interest in working to make their company solvent again, so things can return to the status quo ASAP.

It occurred to me that now we need to worry about the ones at the bottom of the ladder who are suddenly making more than they used to, and might intentionally screw with things to ensure it stays that way as long as possible, at the risk of making the company fail. But then I remembered that they have the entire hierarchy on top of them all poised to fire them at the first sign of sabotage. And millions of unemployed Americans more than ready to take their places.

Again, this is just a thought experiment. I wasn't sure whether to propose equal salaries for everyone or just closer to equal than they are now. The latter would be hard to work out the details of, and the other proposal I've heard -- just making the "people on top" have no income at all -- sounded even dumber because (A) who counts as "the people on top", and (B) it's hardly fair to place the blame for this mess solely on them when surely most of the management is to blame.

I don't this country is going to get back on its economic feet without a major overthrowing of some sort. That's just me though.

Remember, we made out of the Great Depression alive. Although admittedly a lot of things have changed since then, not least of which the fact that manufacturing has almost all moved overseas.

[Bocaj Claw]

That and Germany isn't making any aggressive moves. I suppose we could go beat on them anyway but I don't think it'd go over well with anyone aside from France.