Will an auto industry bailout work as long as the workers are so over-compensated?

If we bail them out, without some sort of concession from the unions, and easing of regulations to level the playing field of foreign manufacturers, we will be bailing them out repeatedly. Labor costs, and health-care equate to almost 50% of the cost of a car, Executive comp amounts to about 1% so quit with the CEO bashing.

There will be no bailout nor should there be. The Government will give the Big 3 auto companies loans, just like when Chrysler received a loan from the Government under the Carter Administration. Not only did that work out very well for Chrysler but it also worked great for the Government. But that is really only part of the problem. Another big part of the problem is the United Auto Workers, GM, Ford, & Chrysler must do whatever they can to remove the unions. Also we need to put tariffs on all foreign cars, whether or not they are built in America or not. Last but not least the government should give a tax rebate for people who buy American automobiles. If all this would happen within a few short years the Big 3 would be back on top of the auto industry.

Of course not, money doesn't "trickle down", it "works its way up. What would be cheaper? Let auto industry suffer the consequence of bad business decisions and bad budgeting (as Americans must do when they make bad decisions), NOT socialize bad business moves, which is inherently anti-capitalist, and if the workers are let go, then bail THEM out with benefits, and state employment, or works programs building or managing national infrastructure improvements The money the workers get from THEIR bailout and their new employment will be spent in the economy and cycle upwards to the Corporations that "sell stuff".

but maybe the better direction to point fingers would be the CEOs that comfortably sit in their office as managers, instead of hard manual labor on their feet as their workers endure.

Manual labor pays more than the average office job, IT is more difficult and intense. Check what auto mechanics, plumbers, and construction workers earn by the hour. Certainly well above minimum wage baggers at the grocery store.

However, this is more concerning: GM CEO Rick Wagoner - $9.3 million in salary and bonus in 2006,

or this: Chrysler's CEO, Bob Nardelli, left Home Depot in '07 with a $210 million severance package

or this: Ford's CEO, Alan Mulally, - $27.8 million salary and bonus for first few months on the job, including $18.5 million signing bonus

So if we take Ford's CEO, and Assume he worked "Full-Time" 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day, for those $46.3 million he got in his first three months, that would be......

480 hours of work....and $46.3 million dollars.....

That equals approximately: $96,458.33 an hour.

If you make $96,458.33 an hour, than YOU are the problem, NOT the guy that makes $72 an hour (if they even make that much)

Geez, I WISH I made $96,458.33 an hour. ;)

I think it will break the backs of the American taxpayer. I'd say they need to renegotiate salaries for all of them. Look what AIG has done with the money they got they're having party after party. Just rubbing it in our faces that we are paying for it!

After the Auto industry who is next ? We all know there will be a never ending list ! Just handing out cash is not the answer. They are going to have to start making concessions. I really think the big unions in this country will destroy the very industry that they are a part of.

The corporate executives of the car companies are the ones who are truly over compensated. The average CEO in the US makes as much as an entire assembly line full of workers. And it's this poor management that made a decision to produce cars that Americans didn't want and not to reduce their debt during the good times.

Bingo ! This plus completely complacent management is the very reason that auto does not deserve a bailout. For the last fifty years, auto mgmt and the UAW have spit in the face of the American consumer, and now they want us to bail out their arrogance. I think not. It's sink or swim time for American auto, and it's time to draw a line in the sand for any more bail outs.

Perhaps the guys at the top who don't do nearly the amount of work those 72 buck an hour guys do should take a pay cut.

as long as American workers can't work for $2.50 per 10 hour day and be happy with their wages, no bail-out will ever work.

Funny how its always the people making $10,000 an hour who are always crying about how over-compensated their laborers are for making $78 an hour, for actually doing the labor.

The Feds change their mind. They are not giving any money to the auto giants. So we don't have to worry about it now.