Billions for banks -- almost no questions asked. We don't even know where some of the money went. But the one bailout that might, and I underscore might, make its way into a worker's pocket gets held up, scrutinized and shrunk.

That would be the auto bailout. With 2 million jobs lost this year – 600,000 in the manufacturing sector alone -- Motor City dwellers are literally praying for help and there are millions of jobs at stake.

Crisis in the auto industry is hardly limited to Detroit. Japan’s Toyota is hurting big time--a two-year old truck plant in San Antonio was shut down for a few months this year. And the opening of a new Prius plant in Mississippi was put on hold. Toyota’s U.S. production overall was cut 20 percent and China just loaned its Chery Automobile Company $1.45 billion after losses there.

Why aren't people buying cars? You can't blame the price of gas -- not this week. The problem is the lack of credit -- and that's masking what's really at fault. Falling wages. Check out your paycheck, if you still have one: since 2004, real wages in the U.S. are down despite huge profits for a few under George W. Bush. 

People simply don’t make enough money to buy cars: hence the need for credit. The auto bailout is the first that might actually put some money in workers' pockets. And not just auto-workers' pockets. Today, one in ten Americans receive foodstamps and most of those recipients go to work everyday. Tax dollars pay for those stamps—so have we the taxpayers been subsidizing corporate profits? You bet. To allow corporate wages? You bet.

But money for profit is never as controversial as money for people. In today's crisis we have a chance to change that.