Bailout Should Not Mean Layoffs

General Motors to Ask for $16.6B in Govt. Aid; to Slash 47,000 Jobs
Chrysler Says It Needs $5B More in Federal Money; to Cut 3k Jobs, AP Reports .

What is wrong with this picture. The United States is in the worst economic condition since the 1930s; unemployment rolls are growing by thousands every day. The stimulus package is supposed to turn that as well as many other downward, economic problems around. Why is a company, and GM is not the only one, allowed to take billions of dollars from tax payers with one hand and with the other put many of those same people out of work. It is counter productive. The major purpose of stimulus is to create jobs. Wouldn't it make all the sense in the world to save 47,000 jobs at GM with at least a part of the $16.6 billion it will be getting! Will that make GM more profitable: Of course not. But, right now, that is not the objective. GM needs to be viable. Our economy doesn't need it to be profitable right now. It does need it to survive, save the 47,000 jobs and the other 244,000 across the country in order to maintain the consumer engine. GM is no doubt in trouble. There will only be 4 brands left form a once giant of the car industry boasting double that number. It absolutely needs to find ways to reduce expenses and assets and increase money intake. The Saturn never lived up to its promise; it was never built as well as the Japanese products it was designed to compete with. Why? Quality was never #1. Environmental leadership was never #1. Efficiency was never #1. Good management was never #1. So, I'm thinking there are many areas of opportunity to make GM a viable company. Start with a management overhaul - preaching integrity, ethical behavior, customer 1st focus. Start making cars for the 21st century instead of the 20th. Work with the union to save the 47,000. Retool, Redesign, and Remake the image. Don't sell a Saturn for $25K. Sell it for $20K. Sales will increase. Moneyflow will be generated. Figure out cuts in expenses that will make that $20K sticker price keep from selling at a loss. Cuts that do not include 47,000 jobs. It may mean a new salary structure. What would a 10% reduction in all salaries mean to the bottom line? $5,000 per employee times 244,000 employees = $1,220,000,000. That's $1.2Billion! Now, that wasn't hard was it? Nobody lost their job. I figure Rick Wagoner, (CEO) can help make up for some of the lower income earners by giving up a little more than the $5000 himself. Bonus pools shrink bigtime when tax dollars start paying for them. Instead, incentives to workers, managers, vice presidents, et. al. are delivered by way of stock options payable sometime in the future. If the company succeeds, those options will be worth something. Talk about having a stake in the future. So, why won't this work? There are hundreds of other actions that can be taken to reduce expenses. The company just has to be inventive enough to make them. As Barak Obama has said: Stimulus means spend. we're spending to save jobs. Saving jobs means families will have the money to buy food, clothing, and (get this) CARS! Wow, what could be better than that.