Wednesday, November 19, 2008
What is the Priority
I always found it funny what priorities the Bush Administration has. They can find $700,000,000,000 for our tax dollars to bail out companies that are white collar workers but when it comes to blue collar companies like GM I hear silence. Just wondering why they have such a disdain for the middle class which this WOULD actually help instead of the phony scam that is running now. I guess it just shows how out of touch Republicans truly are.
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2 comments:
Robert I saw your comments yesterday and why they are not here I don't know. First the attacks shows how right I am and that you didn't really see my post. I didn't say you have to buy American you buy what you want.
2nd the fact is it's IN NO WAY unions fault about the cars on the road that the big three build. And as I posted yesterday if you want to look you simply look at management's bad ideas and put the blame fully on them and not the workers.
3rd again this is just plain union-busting based on the reasons on my last post.
4th why does Wall Street who is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for "main street" losing billions of dollars in bad investments any more deserving then blue-collar people who would benefit with the money they are asking for. And by the way this $25 billion they are asking for is A LOAN and not the blank check Wall Street got.
It would have been nice if my previous comment was still here.
I'm a capitalist, through and through. It's the only truly fair economic system. If a company fails, then it fails because it deserved it. Unions represent Socialism. Poor workers get the same benefits as quality workers. Employers can't fire employees for hurting their company because the individual is protected by the union.
The American auto industry is a perfect example of why unions are wrong. For the past 15 years, the number one selling car in the United States has been the Toyota Camry. The Honda Accord runs a close second. Don't you think GM, Ford, and Chrysler would love a piece of that pie? Don't you think they have the resources to do it? Of course they do! In fact, every so often, one of the American 3 comes out with a very competitive model. The 1995 Chrysler Cirrus and Dodge Stratus were an example of this. The latest has been the recently revised Chevrolet Malibu. Many auto reviews have heralded it as better than the Accord or Camry.
The problem for Chevrolet though, is that Toyota and Honda already have new Camry's and Accords in the works and they will be released in the next few years. Honda and Toyota update their cars from the ground up every 3 to 4 years. This is very difficult and expensive. It requires re-design, re-engineering, prototyping, testing, re-tooling the factories, and re-tooling the parts suppliers.
For GM, Ford, and Chrysler, all this requires union workers and for that reason, they simply can't keep up. They can only afford to do it every 8 years or so. If Chevrolet tried to redo the Malibu every 4 years, they would have to sell it for $50,000 and no one would buy it. When the American companies release a new model, it usually takes 5 years just to recover the cost to produce it. Then hopefully, it makes a profit.
It was reported recently that $3,000 of every GM car sold goes straight to pensions of retired workers. Ford and Chrysler have similar statistics. Honda and Toyota don't pay a dime to pensions.
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, and BMW all have an unfair advantage over GM, Ford, and Chrysler. That advantage is they don't use unions.
Barack Obama says he imagines clean cars being built in America. If these cars are to be built by GM, Ford, and Chrysler, the unions have to go. If America expects to compete globally, the unions have to go.
Like I stated earlier, Erik, you let your wallet do your talking. Your own wallet said you don't believe in unions.
One more thing. You may have noticed that I write about the auto industry fairly often. That's because I've been into it for years. I occasionally do work for an auto manufacturer. For legal reasons, I can't say who or what I do but understand that I know what I'm talking about.
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