Car company bailout?

There's been a lot of talk the last few days about the danger to the US economy if the big 3 automakers continue on their downward trend and go under. A lot of people are calling for a bailout, which would cost at the minimum tens of billions of dollars. In today's NY Times, Thomas Friedman writes about the crisis, noting that automakers have turned their back on innovation in order to continue producing gas guzzlers. He suggests that the best course of action would be to follow the proposals made in the Wall Street Journal by Paul Ingrassia, a former Detroit bureau chief for that paper.

“In return for any direct government aid,” Ingrassia wrote, “the board and the management [of G.M.] should go. Shareholders should lose their paltry remaining equity. And a government-appointed receiver — someone hard-nosed and nonpolitical — should have broad power to revamp G.M. with a viable business plan and return it to a private operation as soon as possible. That will mean tearing up existing contracts with unions, dealers and suppliers, closing some operations and selling others and downsizing the company ... Giving G.M. a blank check — which the company and the United Auto Workers union badly want, and which Washington will be tempted to grant — would be an enormous mistake.”

Friedman suggests that a call be made to Steve Jobs, asking him to take over a car company for a year, which he thinks will be enough time for Jobs to come up with an I-car.

I don't think it's a good idea to let the car companies go under, but I hate the idea that the feds would spend as much as it takes to bail them out. I kind of like the idea of seeing what Jobs could do in creating an I-car. What do you think?