As I was watching the news the other night an idea came to me. Instead of bailing out all these companies why not bail out us taxpayers instead? With all the billions being thrown away on these industries (auto, airline, and banking) why don't you just cut every taxpayer a check and completely erase their debt, and you could call it operation "clean slate". I'm sure if the government would do that they'd end up spending far less then they are right now. I am sure that a person who is debt free would start spending right away, thus spurring the economy and aiding in it's growth. Of course you'd only do this once, and if you got yourself in financial trouble again that would be your problem.