“Why don’t the auto companies do that? Management and workers could agree to substantial pay and benefit cuts with each dollar earning them stock in the companies. This would provide a huge short term cash savings to the company and give workers a permanent stake in ensuring that the company is managed for success and innovation, not just for job preservation.”
How are these employees going to explain that to the companies that hold their mortgage notes?
“Err, hey, I’m making minimum wage until GM can reverse 40+ years of bad decision making and at least 20 years worth of Japanese competition and innovation. Can I post date a check?”

Jazzypaul, it definitely doesn’t solve that problem — but it will be better than when they tell the mortgage company that they dont have any job at all, which may be the alternative. The path they’re on now is that they’re going to have major wage concessions — and get nothing for it. By the way, I wasnt suggest that they take minimum wage but rather that whatever wage cuts they give should be counted as sweat equity

Where was I in those days? Editing and writing for a megachurch and bankrupting myself instead! Great story and good for you and those risk taking employees who earned your reward.

The writer makes an interesting point but whether or not car companies could manage to do as beliefnet did is another matter.
The fact is that car companies are in an unrenewable and unsustainable industry, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all automakers eventually become bankrupt when nobody can afford their cars.
I cannot justify to myself paying $20000+ for an unreliable machine when I could put that in savings or towards a mortgage. Cars are not worth what is being charged for them, it’s as simple as that.
Greedy CEOs need to take a hefty paycut before any frontline workers take any further job loss or paycuts.
Pat

Beliefnet, this id stuff sucks. CEOs need to take massive paycuts

I mentally juxtaposed this post with 1)the image of the one Big Three CEO — can’t remember which one — who, in the first round of hearings, when asked if he would take a pay and benefit cut, smugly replied that he was happy with his current compensation package; and 2)the news piece I heard on public radio a few weeks ago about the Big Three’s deliberate self-sabotage of their own hybrid vehicle programs, featuring a smug auto-industry spokesperson’s dismissal of alternative-energy vehicles; and 3)the infamous private jets conveying the auto execs to DC.
I live in Michigan…Ground Zero for the auto industry crisis. But it’s hard to feel sympathy for a corporation whose management is this arrogant and clueless. I think one of the bailout conditions should be removal of all the current upper management.

That’s a good idea except maybe the workers can’t pay their bills at minimum wage. One idea is that all their foreign competition is first of all not doing all that well either. Second, those foreign auto makers get government subsidies. And third, they have nationalized, single payer health care. Those factors, especially two and three, make a big difference as the Big 3 here don’t have those two advantages.

Wages are only 10% of cost of cars. Bad ideas are the cost paid buy the workers

This is a good idea, selling it to the excesutives and workers is another thing. If everyone in a company realized that they could save the company and agree on realizectic wages, they might have a chance. Too many people would not want to give up anything to save the company because so many American workers think that they are owed a job. The exectives make way too much money for what they do and even some plant workers make too much money. As far as paying their bills, many people bought too many things and now are stuck with the debt. This problem doesn’t have any easy answers because we’re all to blame. I do think that everyone of us should as God for help and think before we buy that 60″ plasma TV that costs as much as a house. I gave away my TV two years ago and feel liberated. So what if I can’t sit around and talk about silly probrams. TV will destroy your mind. Try reading a good book and exercise your mind.

this was a great idea, most employees would not mind getting paid in stocks.