Seriously guys? Seriously.

I’m no economist, but I’ve known for a while that we were in a recession. I’m just glad to see the National Bureau of Economic Research admit it. Unemployment is up, the stock market is going crazy and big companies are continuing to beg for more and more money. No one knows what to do and all the people who are supposed to be experts seem to be making things worse.

Most economists are saying the recession will last about 17 months. Having not been old enough to remember the 1981 recession, I can only imagine what this one has in store for everyone. I guess I’ll just continue to pray and wait for my economic bailout to come through. I knew once the government started handing out cash to Wall Street, everyone was going to start asking for their piece of the pie. Obama is inherting a mess and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles it all.

I think any company who takes part of the bailout should adhere to the following:

• CEOs and upper executive salaries should be capped at $250,000 or less a year with no bonus. That way they could benefit from the Obama tax plan.
• Upper management will have to go through the same performance review as regular employees.
• If layoffs are necessary, they should be limited to a set percentage.
• To apply for bailout money each company must be able to openly show how the money will be spent.

My solution to fix the auto industry would be to allocate the $21 billion to the American people for the sole purpose of buying an American-made car. We could every household $15,000 (or more) to buy a car of their choice. To apply you would have to go to a participating dealer and fill out an application. They would contact the government, verify your citizenship and process your application. After you are approved the $15,000 credit would be applied to the price of the car after taxes and fees are added (you don’t get the money). You just finance the difference after the rebate. All Americans could participate and income would not be a factor.

Only cars Made in America would be eligible. Competition would still matter because dealerships would have to price their cars to get them off the lot. The auto industry would benefit because they would get to move the inventory and keep the factories open. The American people would benefit because they could potentially get a free car and after it’s purchased they do with it whatever they wanted.

See, problem solved. I guess the only downside would be more cars on the street and pollution (I can’t fix everything). Think this will work?