How The Bailouts Should Work...

As we know, everyone is upset at AIG for borrowing billions of dollars of taxpayer money and using upwards of 10% to pay executives. Personally, I think AIG should be allowed to fail. They need to exercise every resource, including executive pay, prior to closing its doors. I understand the antithesis to my sentiments: AIG carries 74 million insurance policies. However, there are plenty of companies that would pick up where they left off. Also, AIG needs to get rid of its financial segments. Allegedly, this is where the problem lies. At the end of all of this bailout mess, there needs to be a few antitrust hearings because some of these companies are too big. If AIG's failure could cost the economy more than the billions of taxpayer money that's being loaned then that's a big problem.

All that's beside the point...

This is how I think the bailouts should work:

When a corporation comes to the government, they should have:

• Their last two years of financials (including cash flow statements, balance sheets, and salary reports).
• A detailed explanation of the company's progression to failure with clear line items on what they did to try to turn it around.
• Possible considerations outside of a government loan to save their business (i.e. merger, acquisition, etc.)

If the government approves their bailout package, they then decide how much to award each corporation (i.e. GM, AIG, etc.)

However many billion dollars they get awarded, they have to trade shares in company stock to the American people based upon each persons income.

If they are successful, they pay the loan back at an appreciated rate and buy the stock from the American public.

If they fail, then the company becomes the property of the government to sell as a whole corporation, or segment the company out the business entities and sell to viable enterprises.

Either way the American people make their money back.

*Only tax payers who paid the previous year and are in good standing with the IRS are eligible.