The Detroit Three again. Paul Krugman points out that with credit unavailable, bankruptcy means liquidation to pay off debt. This is an especially bad time (there's never a good time...) to put 1 million affected people out of work.[1] If you accept this line of reasoning then the government must inject capital whether the automakers are in bankruptcy or not. Thus: (1) If the taxpayers put up the money they ought to get a preferred piece of the action and (2) they should impact the process that leads the American automakers to a healthy, useful lifestyle.

Historically a highly paid CEO's compensation topped out at about 40 times the average employee's pay. Today that number is more like 400 times the average employee's pay.

The fact that these companies got into this position is evidence enough that there is a lot of very overpaid deadwood at the top.

Part of the cleanup should include dumping the deadwood (they won't starve) and re-establishing executive compensation at rational levels.