That wouldn't make a difference. When a company is failing, investors are always first in line to get their money back, and in this case there's a lot of investor money to be paid back before anyone else sees a dime.
If by "first in line" you mean that preferred stock owners are ahead of common stock owners you're right.
But there are other creditors that go before any stock holders. One of the main creditors is wages owed to employees for work performed. It's probably small consolation to people who see their equity wiped out, but I've known of companies during the dot-com bubble that went bankrupt and tried to cheat employees out of even that.
Employees invest time and skills (since part of their pay comes from options) but somehow investing mere money (and possibly in more than one company) is rewarded with the better stocks.
And this at a time when the valley is nearly the only place one can invest money in honest businesses (that is to say, those that produce actual value, not just live of the actions of the past or sweetheart government deals).
