Gimmick Conditions

As stupid as it is/was to oppose a bailout to the Big 3 because the CEOs rode in on private planes, it is equally stupid to now support one because they are pledging to slash their yearly salaries to $1. This salary slashing is nothing more than a gimmick and not an entirely creative one.

In the last year, the chief executives of 32 companies in the Russell 3000 took $1 or no base salary, according to executive compensation firm Equilar.

But this handful of executives still earned millions of dollars through stocks and other forms of compensation, according to data provided by the Corporate Library, a research firm that tracks executive compensation based on company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I'm pretty much in favor of a bailout for the auto industry, but I have serious concerns about it's effectiveness in large part because I think most people will fall for gimmick conditions like the $1 salary. For the bailout to be effective it needs to be tied to conditions that aren't based around a propaganda war.