Auto Execs Fly Corporate Jets to D.C., Tin Cups in Hand

[Greg in Maryland]

This irony of this is quite enjoyable ....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

Greg

[jking]

It's kind of hard to feel sorry them...It's kind of like when you see a panhandler on the side of the road walk to a parking lot & drive away in a car worth $30,000.

[LCHIEN]

I wonder if it ever crossed their minds at all (about the appearances of showing up for a "handout" in a corporate jet) or they did it without thinking.
Sure looked bad at the hearings.

[Tom Slick]

I'd bet it didn't even dawn on them. folks that live in that world have a different view. look at the stupid stuff movie stars do.

[Uncle Cracker]

It's OK for them to go ahead and live in their own little world, until they come into my world and ask for my money...

I thought about going to Washington and asking for my own bailout, but then I realized that I can't even afford to rent a corporate jet...

[Popeye]

We'll all sit here, be outraged about the auto big shots and say how much we don't think we should bail out the US auto industry but.... although I agree with the sentiment about the execs my thoughts are with "Joe Blue Collar". How can we justify bailing out Wall Street and not do anything for Blue collar America? I really think we should let them all go as the market dictates.
I don't have the answers, I guess if I did I might be something other than a blue collar truck driver. I do think that the union contracts need to be reviewed and probably changed and managment needs to be dumped. Watching American industry seem to tumble just scares the **** out me for our future. Pat

[Pappy]

Mayhaps the "Big Three" wouldn't be in such deep Kimshee if the CEO's didn't get 8 figure salaries. And that is just the top dog. Add up the salaries of all upper management, or just the Boards of Directors, and it would probably far exceed their 'losses'!

[BobSch]

Give them the bailout they're asking for. But only if the companies replace all the high-flying executives that got them in the hole in the first place.

[cgallery]

Flying there in private jets was dumb.

Not bailing them out would be dumber.

Bailing them out on the automaker's terms would be dumbest.

My proposal: Put them on life support: (1) A cash drip from the government equal to their monthly burn rate. Absolutely no lump sum payouts. (2) All three CEO's now report to a new auto czar (Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, others come to mind, someone accustomed to dealing with executive B.S.) (3) New auto czar will have the power to replace/remove any management if progress isn't made. (4) The unions come back to the bargaining table, and we renegotiate legacy costs into a taper so that the youngest employees take the largest hit, the older employees and current retirees take the least hit. Current features like pay for no work would be dropped or substantially modified.

These $25+ billion bailouts don't work any better than giving a crack-addicted homeless person $5000 along with a book on budgeting.

[Stytooner]

Well, I would say "Cry me a river", but these guys likely have yachts that would easily navigate up it. That is if it's a huge river and pretty deep as well.
The saddest part is this isn't the first time they have needed help. I doubt it will be the last either without some sort of an idiot cap on those earnings and bennies for the upper echelon.

5 mill a year is plenty!

[lebomike]

This information taken off the Chrysler Site.
2007 Chrysler has tapped former Home Depot boss Robert Nardelli to become the automaker's new chairman.
Nardelli is considered an automotive outsider. He's never worked for or run an automotive company before.
Robert Nardelli was the guy Home Depot gave a $127 million dollar golden parashute.
I say let them sink and get rid of the excessive pay rates.

[Uncle Cracker]

Yeah, HD lost a huge chunk of market share and customer loyalty on Nardelli's watch, not to mention losing their team spirit and internal coordination. I'm sure he's exactly what Chrysler needs right now...

But in his defense, you gotta expect him to go out and get another gig... $127mil only lasts so long, y'know...

[prlundberg]

Well, we can whine and moan about the big 3 executives, but have you checked out the pay of Honda and Toyota execs? Or how they travel?

[crokett]

Well, we can whine and moan about the big 3 executives, but have you checked out the pay of Honda and Toyota execs? Or how they travel?

AFIK Honda and Toyota aren't hemorrhaging cash or asking for bailouts. Honda just opened a plant in Indiana this week. The Big 3 execs have run their respective companies into the ground. They have been teetering on the edge for years. The current economy is just the final push. This link was posted in another thread on this site but it is a perfect example of what is endemic to the US auto industry:

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...A01-351179.htm

[Gator95]

Two thoughts:

1) At a gut level the potential auto bailout idea makes me want to puke. The bank bailout made me want to puke too, but I tolerated it because the consequenses of letting a run on financial institutions getting started in a digital age was worse.

2) When I break down what makes me barf about the auto bailout it is mainly because all these top execs are getting millions a year to get us into this mess etc... but of course they'll walk away rich no matter what.

Really I feel in my gut that the underlying disgust with the bank bailout and potential auto bailout comes down to the insane imbalance with executive salary and their past arrogance that they all deserve it for what they do and that their salary is 'market based'. When everyone was doing well, I guess we tolerated this... even celebrated it. But now I think in the next few years this will have to be questioned.

Not sure how it can be fixed, but there is definately an 'executive class' that makes it's own rules regarding compensation. There is no way that any of these bozos are really bringing 100 million of added value to their companies from their stewardship. I'm not talking about just the CEO's. I'm also talking about the 'VP of Best Practices' that makes $500K a year to make extra non-value added work for others and who's work output is mainly powerpoint presentations. Anyone else who's worked at a couple Fortune 500 companies knows what I mean.