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There should be appropriate standards for compensation of senior executives whose companies sell troubled assets to the government. My suggestion is 60 times what the lowest-paid worker in the company makes. Thus, if the lowest-paid worker earns $10 an hour, the CEO should earn no more than $60 an hour or $115,200 a year. If the company makes a profit, bonuses should be based on the same formula. A bailout should also include only mortgage-related securities. If the company exhibited poor judgment in the purchase of other assets, too bad. Any profits from the program should be returned to the Treasury and not used for any other purpose.

ABBI LAWRANCE
Encinitas

The Mortgage Bankers Association said on Sept. 5 that more than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage – a record 9 percent – were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June. If we assume that the average mortgage is upside down to the tune of $50,000, which is probably a high estimate, then every one of the distressed mortgages could be bought down to current market value for $200 billion, and the feds could take a future equity position in the collateral, as they did during the Great Depression. That's where the money ought to be spent, not to buy worthless, puffed-up derivatives. When it comes to helping the homeowner, they speak of “moral hazard” but they forget all that when it comes to spending four times that sum as a gift, free money, to Wall Street.

STANLEY F. ZUBEL
San Diego

I can't believe that these ungodly Republicans want to bail out Wall Street with middle-class taxpayer money. Who has to be bailed out is the middle class. Let Wall Street fend for itself. Enough is enough. It isn't going to work. Even a 74-year-old retired bookkeeper, grandmother knows that.

ARMIDA FRANCESCHIN
Ramona

The Democrats want provisions in the financial bailout bill to allow homeowners to be allowed to stay in their homes (“Democrats won't pass bailout as is,” A1, Sept. 22). Many of these people bought homes that were way beyond their means. That's what caused this whole dilemma to start with. There's no way those people can afford to keep these homes. This needs to be handled separately after the bailout is approved, possibly using an affordability yardstick.

BRUCE SKOVMAND
Vista

With all due respect, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Fed's Ben Bernanke reacted (a key word) too late to be trusted. Further, they reacted too impetuously (within a few days) with an outrageous request for funds we struggling Americans no longer have. Unlike too many Washington decision-makers, we do not have discretionary income. Most of us need every penny we earn. Barack Obama says he would give middle America a tax break. How can he, if he needs to collect our corporate-initiated debt? And does anyone remember what Paulson did before he became the secretary of the Treasury? CEO of the surviving investment bank that has just filed for reorganization. Be careful, San Diego.

BONNIE BEKKEN
Normal Heights

Any legislation passed must instead directly assist American homeowners. Instead of the banks foreclosing, why not renegotiate the loans directly with the existing homeowners at the same price as what the foreclosed price would be, thereby solving not only the banks' problems but also the existing homeowners' problems?

SUSAN DINSEN
Spring Valley

Every time the Bush administration has wanted to do something dubious or dangerous, it has trumpeted the need for haste (“Huge rescue plan needs swift action, White House says,” A1, Sept. 20). Give the president unlimited powers to invade Iraq, right now, or the terrorists win. Pass the odious Patriot Act, right now, or the nation lacks resolve. Call it the “sky is falling” philosophy of governing.

Now comes the president's insistence that within five days, with no consideration and no amendment, Congress should pass the biggest financial bailout in the history of the world, potentially indebting ourselves, our children, our grandchildren to the Chinese, the Saudis and anyone else who has been more prudent with their money than we Americans have.

Is Congress balking? Demanding a moment to think? Perhaps it has finally started to learn a lesson it should have mastered back in 2002 and 2003.

RON BONN
Tierrasanta

I urge Congress to take some time to rework the Treasury bill into something more reasonable. Although I appreciate the seriousness of the financial situation, the bill as it sits now has too few checks on the use of the money and virtually no benefit for the federal government and taxpayer. As a young American, I do not want further billions carelessly piled onto the national debt which my taxes will have to pay.

I urge Congress to produce a bill that encourages proper oversight on the use of this extraordinary sum as well as a government share in any future benefits to the banks. Secretary Paulson's “clean” bailout idea is too simplistic and will only benefit the Wall Street institutions whose poor management and greed helped to precipitate this situation. Congress must not give in to administration pressure to push this bill through in a rush job.

JAY TAYLOR
El Cajon

Here's a plan: Take a trip to Las Vegas. Lose a lot of money at the craps table. But don't be concerned – have your loss covered by the taxpayers, whether they like it or not. And don't forget to list your fuel, meals and hotel costs as deductible expenses when you file your income tax returns. The taxpayers will take care of that, too.

STAN LEVIN
San Diego

It's my tax money, and yet it's going to Wall Street speculators who knew better but opted for greed, anyway. I play by the rules, and usually pay as I go. I'm concerned about my own survival and a retirement with dignity. Help me instead with my mortgage crisis, set to explode next year.

VICTORIA CAVATAIO
San Diego

As a somewhat frugal American who is driving two old paid-off cars, I would like to request some collateral for the loan I am about to make to our downtrodden Wall Street types. Please deliver one Rolls-Royce, preferably silver with low miles, to my address. You should have no trouble finding my home. I only have one.

A.W. DuBOIS
San Diego

If I sell goods and services under false pretenses and am caught, I have to make it right, and may even do time. I don't get a golden parachute. The CEOs and their big financial houses should not be rewarded with taxpayer money. If a bailout is necessary, it should be a loan that requires payback with interest, and stringent oversight.

ERIC KURZDORFER
Alpine

I'm appalled and angered by the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion to $1 trillion bailout of bad mortgages. It tells us that we must act fast or certain disaster is going to befall us. No debate, no discussion of alternative plans. Once again we have to “trust them.” We're already more than $500 billion into its last instance of crying wolf in Iraq.

Remember the weapons of mass destruction and Donald Rumsfeld's claim that “we know where they are”? Now it's our financial system that is going to collapse if we don't support the bailout. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Congress has learned its lesson, either. It looks as though it is going to go along with this costly plan with little debate or, worse, tack onto it rewards for those whose irresponsible borrowing were accomplices this mess. Greed is what has driven this whole mess and now as a taxpayer and a person who didn't succumb to the greed of speculation, who has lived within my means, I'm being asked to bail those who were reckless and irresponsible?

MIKE SACAUSKIS
San Diego

I agree with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' statement last week that if a company is “too big to fail” – if its collapse would endanger the health of the entire economy – “it is too big to exist.” Any solution to the financial crisis should include aggressive antitrust action to break up the big banks and investment companies, and restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act's firewalls between banking and investment.

MARK CONLAN
San Diego

Here's a sound bite I recommend to all Republican politicians falling over themselves to claim the title of the new Ronald Reagan: “The 10 loveliest words in the English language to Wall Street tycoons – 'I'm from the government, I'm here to bail you out.' ”

JOSEPH S. CARMELLINO
San Diego

Regarding “Half a trillion dollars in perspective” graphic (News, Sept. 20):

The difference in size for the circles for the bailout and the $602 billion expense for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is striking. The comparison is misleading. From basic economics, the expenses for war are nonrecoverable expenses. In contrast, some of the expenses for the bailout may be recovered in the future. This is fundamental economics, and it makes a difference in how to view and evaluate the bailout. War and the bailout are serious matters and it behooves us, our Congress and leaders not to rush to a hasty bailout.

JERRY SELNESS
San Diego

Even after all the atrocities of the last eight years, I still find it hard to believe what is happening now. You're going to save a bunch of corporations? With our debt? And just print more money to do it? Evidently, all the Republican talk about free markets and self-reliance applies only to the poor. The only people who should receive any government aid are people with loans on a home they're actually living in, and people who were deceived by lenders. Everyone else should suffer whatever consequences arise from their “investment” decision. Additional aid should be made available to people who lose their jobs as a result of their employers going bankrupt. It's really not that complicated.

And if the economy needs an injection of money to keep functioning, we need roads, bridges, schools, green energy – there are plenty of worthy causes that would actually help people. Giving half a trillion dollars to a bunch of greedy, incompetent, immoral executives to keep their corrupt firms in business can't be the answer.

STEVE POWELL
San Diego

Restrict flight training to rural areas

Regarding “Filmmaker trains lens on horrific PSA crash” (A1, Sept. 22):

The article about the 1978 PSA mid-air collision with a Cessna conducting flight training should remind all people in charge of airports in this country that training of flight students should not be undertaken over our cities. It is long past time to move this flight training out of our communities and into more remote areas.

ROY BENSTEAD
El Cajon

A free market argument taken to the extreme

University of San Diego professor Matt Zwolinski's defense of price gougers (“Price gouging in a free market,” Opinion, Sept. 18) appears to be just one more example of someone taking a common-sense truth – that a competitive free market can be a very efficient way of distributing resources in many situations – and inflating it into a worship of the market as infallibly benevolent. His argument rests on the unwarranted assumption that the amount one will pay for something is always determined by how badly he needs it, as though ability to pay played no role. The janitor in a hurricane-stricken city who needs ice because there's no power for his refrigerator may not be able to pay the gouger and still feed his family, while the socialite wanting ice for the punch bowl at her garden party will pay the gouger's price because it's a trifle to her. This can hardly be considered “ensuring that scarce goods go to those who need them most.”

JAMES ANDERSON
Encinitas

Water conservation and building permits

Regarding “Residents fail to meet water conservation goal” (Around Our Region, Sept. 17):

Mayor Jerry Sanders chastised San Diegans for not conserving enough. Ironically, the Planning Commission last week backed the mega-residential/shopping/business complex in Mission Valley known as Quarry Falls. It would house nearly 5,000 residents and attract visitors. Proponents said it was within the approved limits of water availability. The city has already approved the Westfield University Towne Center expansion adding more housing development. There are proposed housing projects all along Mission Valley and surrounding neighborhoods. City Hall and developers keep scaring us that a million people will move here within 20 years, and we just have to keep building to accommodate them. That's why we're asked to conserve water and electricity.

The region is not running out of water if the population remains status quo. Rather, our leaders are just too self-serving to discourage throngs of people from moving here.

MARGARET BARTEL
Mission Valley

Latin American countries backtracking

Regarding “Following in footsteps of reformers” (Marcela Sanchez, Opinion, Sept. 13):

The reason that Latin American countries underperform when it comes to business reform is because of the high degree of corruption and greed that politicians display. They often prioritize personal agendas rather than public matters. As a Latin American, I feel ashamed that our countries are backtracking instead of progressing. Reforms that enhance the business scope in Latin American countries should be embraced for the region to prosper and become financial stable for their citizens, as well as helping in the solution of such problems as famine and immigration.

GABRIEL AMAYA
San Diego

Not easy sleeping amid Street Scene

Regarding “When the sun goes down, Street Scene gets its spirit” (Our Region, Sept. 21):

As an East Village resident, I just wanted to provide some feedback on Street Scene 2008. It was a mess. Moving the bands farther out into East Village where there are more residents now created nothing but headaches. The bands with little talent were heard screaming for hours through apartment and condo complexes. It was a mistake to move it back into downtown. To have the streets blocked off for a mediocre Padre game is one thing; to have a talentless band yelling through the streets of downtown where people are working, living and trying to sleep is quite another.

MARY BARNES
San Diego