Homestead mailing list

[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Lynda, this is a commentary just posted which mentions something about to 
which you (below) referred as far as the payroll during the plant shut-downs. 
 I don't agree with everything in the commentary.  "good" labor unions served 
a purpose, once.  Maybe they could again, I don't know.  I generally don't 
like collectivist entities because they always end badly, but.................

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Dec 19 2008     By: Dan Norcini      2:55 pm 




News that the American automakers would gain access to the government’s 
political slush fund, also known in some circles as the TARP – Troubled Asset 
Relief Program – sent the Dollar skyward and was initially good for a pop in 
the US equity futures. Yes sireee – now that all those concessions have been 
wrung out of the unions to enable Ford, GM and Chrysler to be competitive 
(excuse me – my alarm clock  just went off and I woke up from my dream) – we 
can expect to see these companies swimming in profits once again.

 Right along that line Ford announced today that it was planning on bringing 
a line of hybrids, battery-hybrids and electric cars to production by 2012 
(down here we call those things Go-Carts). Nice timing guys – gasoline prices 
are headed to $1.00 gallon and Detroit announces a line of battery powered 
cars. Yep – that should prove to be a real winner. Way to think outside the 
box!

While some are no doubt cheering the news and applauding the “bold and 
daring” political decision to back the loans that the American Automobile 
industry is screaming for, personally, I view it as a sad day in American 
capitalism. It seems to me that what we have no come down to in this nation 
is the rewarding of failure and mediocrity. We all know that car sales have 
slowed for all the entire automotive industry yet we do not see Honda or 
Toyota on their knees begging the political masters for money to keep them in 
existence in current form.

 I suspect that from this point forward, American industry will be spending 
far more money on staffing their lobbyists instead of research and 
development. And why shouldn’t they? It works. I should point out herein the 
interest of fairness that to Ford’s credit, they said that they do not need 
any short term financial assistance but are concerned what a possible failure 
of GM and Chrysler would do to them.

Perhaps after the unions have killed the goose that laid their golden egg the 
US auto industry can go the way of the US steel industry which also could not 
compete with foreign competition because of the outrageous burdens imposed 
upon it by the unions. I read the other day that Chrysler was going to 
shutter its plants for a month in order to reduce costs – yet did you know 
that the unionized workers will still receive a full 95% of their regular pay 
over that period.

 How would you like to get an extra month’s vacation and still get paid 
nearly all of your salary for sitting on your duff? And Detroit wonders why 
it cannot compete? Mark my words – we have not seen the last of the US 
automotive CEO’s begging for money from Washington. I suspect that we will 
also see them testifying before Congress about high medical insurance costs 
for their workers and the need to offload that expense onto the US taxpayers 
as well. My guttural response to all this is to say let’s just all go back to 
riding horses and a pox on their entire house.

All of these companies could go into Chapter 11 and reorganize, get out from 
under the ridiculous burdens imposed upon them by the unions, and begin 
producing vehicles that Americans are clamoring to buy and emerge meaner, 
leaner and stronger but in today’s climate that might mean some pain and 
hardship for a period of time – something which our noble statesmen in 
Washington cannot stomach as having occurred on their watch. Instead we get 
corporate welfare run amok and an unholy alliance between business and 
politicians. Please do not misunderstand – I want the US auto industry to 
succeed – but not at the cost of subsidizing stupidity.

My rant about all this is to state that if somehow this is all being viewed 
as Dollar friendly, such views are better likened to whistling past a 
graveyard in the hopes that one can convince themselves how brave and 
fearless that they are when in reality fear is clawing at your belly. Where 
does it all end? What industry will be next in line for goodies? Don’t forget 
we have not even taken into account some of the various states that are now 
officially bankrupt and are clamoring for a piece of the pie. 

The federal bailouts and loan guarantees might be one thing if the US were a 
creditor nation and possessed a large pool of savings. It has neither but is 
hopelessly in debt and merely compounding its predicament further by giving 
away money which it does not have, borrowing those sums from China. It would 
seem that Washington has become nothing but a cash cow milking future 
generations of Americans who are not yet even born for they are the ones that 
will be paying for this in one way or the other......................
--------------------------------------------------------------------


--- On Fri, 12/19/08, Lynda <lurine AT com-pair.net> wrote:


> Well, the fear tactics worked.  I'm surprised that Dumbya fell for it, if 
> he fell for it or is simply figuring the sheople have fallen for it.  I 
> mean, that's the tactics that his admin has used form the get go.
> 
> The Big 3 close their plants every year for two weeks.  I guess saying they 
> were laying people off for 4 weeks sounds better than saying that everyone 
> will be using their vacation pay for at least two weeks JUST LIKE THEY DO 
> EVERY SINGLE YEAR and using any other paid leave they have
wouldn't have sounded as good or been justification for the give away.
> 
> Lynda