I totally agree that Boeing is a critical industry, but in our system, stockholders take risks to earn rewards (dividends, higher stock prices, etc.) This is a classic case of stockholders betting on a management team that turned out to be good at the financials, creating a lot of wealth for stockholders over a long period, but ended up showing that they have no idea how to run a technological giant like Boeing. This company is famous for its engineering proficiency over decades, then for some reason, someone decided that the engineering-focused top managers should be replaced by finance and marketing-focused people, and the result is a complete disaster. If Boeing is to get a bailout, it should be conditioned on a complete restructuring of the company, replacing its current CEO office and board of directors, and forcing current stockholders to pay a significant price for betting on an incompetent management team. Maybe in the future they may prioritize good engineering and safety, with less pressure on the financials.
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