Bailout the auto industry? Hell yes. But...

I got crapped on for this, actually, at work, during lunch, by my fellow union members. Don't care. Bailout the industry and do it immediately.

But get a few pounds of flesh in return.

First of all, rescuing the auto manufacturers also rescues every other manufacturer that supplies specialized products/goods to the auto industry. These folks, mostly unionized workers, have already borne the brunt of management's piss-poor decision making. In fact the UAW has been a leader in calling for more efficient and better quality products, cost-effectiveness and reigning in some of the overreaching their corporate employers have engaged in over the past couple of decades. And that BS about unions driving up the costs of manufacturing is just that: manufactured BS from the likes of the usual dipshits like gasbag Limbaugh and the Drunk. Those jobs can't disappear, or nobody will be able to buy anything, let alone cars.

Second, the bailout has to be conditional. Very. Like 40-plus mpg minimum within a very few years, alternate fuel technology guarantees, and retooling to build mass-transit. If we're going to subsidize the industry, they damn well better make something the public actually wants.

Third, the fuckwits who drove the auto makers into this ditch need to give up the stock options and other incentives that still keep them rich as hell. Don't insult my intelligence with that phony "I'll work for a one dollar salary" bullshit. In fact, they ought to be shitcanned immediately by the new owners of the corporations, the American people, and replaced with management who actually has a vision and a plan for the future of domestic production (in other words, some brains).

And if the manufacturers don't come through? Threaten to go "Full Chavez" on them and nationalize the industry.