automotive boondoggle

Representatives of the Big 3 automotive makers out of Michigan met with Speaker Pelosi yesterday begging her(Congress) to bail them out with $25 billion of our money so they can stay afloat. All of the US auto makers lost billions last year and need a bailout. How could this happen? Well, for starters, and for the most part, they make crap cars for an excessive amount of money. If you make a good product people will buy it. This is why Toyota is the number one seller in the country and Nissan and Honda are not far behind. And, guess what? Their management pays them a good, living wage with top of the line benefits. According to journalist Cal Thomas who did the research Union members of The Big 3 average $80.00 an hour including benefits. These are non-skilled hourly workers. And every time the minimum wage increases it's built into union contracts that their wages automatically increase. What a joke! I had the misfortune of working in a Ford plant in Wixom, Michigan about ten years ago. It was my first time in an auto plant and it was an eye opener. I had sold them a bearing protection seal and was in the process of installing it on a building roof. I had to have a union representative watch me put in our seal. It was fast approaching sundown and I was having trouble seeing the work to be done. I was within ten minutes of completing the project when the light bulb above our heads burned out. There was a box of five more bulbs not more than ten feet from us but the union worker, Randy C., would not screw in the bulb because he didn't have a union signed work order. I had to get a motel and come back the next morning to finish the job.
Nash, Studebaker, Oldsmobile. Remember them? They don't exist any more because people didn't buy them. If the auto industry makes a competitive product they'll survive but it isn't our responsibility to bail out their sorry butts if they can't compete in a competitive world. Sadly, the bailout will happen because the Dems will lose the blue collar vote and politics is more important to them than what's good for the country.