Posted by
Lucky1346 on Saturday, November 15, 2008 4:41:16 PM
We don't argue too much, Hubby and I - at least not about the big things - because I trust his judgment and his perspective on things economic and, in general, historic. He's been paying attention to the world longer than I have so it makes sense to listen when he speaks.
It started when I said I didn't want to see another bail-out package, this one designed to help the car companies. You could put my sympathy for U.S. car manufacturers in a thimble and there would be room left over for a little finger. FORD, GM, CHRYSLER have all seen the TOYOTAS, HONDAS, SUBARUS landing in the American markets for years now and had lots of time to figure out how to fight off these competitors. Why hasn't it worked? Are their marketing people asleep? What kinds of surveys have they done to shine a light on what Americans really want in a car?
The bottom line (literally, not figuratively) is that most Americans never give much thought to what it's really going to cost them to have in a car what they think they want, like big, comfy, Corinthian leather, super speakers, speed, and they have no problem with Italian names - like "Prius." We're pretty much impulse shoppers no matter what the item.
This time it's more about the unions and how greedy they have become. How much more it costs to support a U.S. unionized worker ($30-40 more an hour with all the benefits they get). Sure there was a time when we were rightfully grateful for the unions stepping up to the plate and facing down the corporate giants of their day and getting for our workers (our fathers and grand-fathers and even great-grandfathers) employment considerations that we take for granted now: a decent, living wage, a 40-hour work week, an-OSHA planned environment where safety is an issue, limitations on child labor... you get the idea.
It took fearless men to threaten those corporate giants and force them into submission until demands were met. These were powerful and ruthless men who had a loyal following of other fearless men and women. How many of us would be willing to face a huge guy wielding a billy-club, threatening to beat our heads in if we spoke "union"? When your family faces starvation, how many of us would have taken $4.00 an hour over nothing per hour because you have no job?
These fearless Union men took the adulation of their now-unionized workers, their grateful adoring throngs, and unfortunately took advantage of them, perhaps felt they were entitled to a bigger piece of the union dues pie for all they had done for the little worker bees. (I think my father would have taken a bullet for Jimmy Hoffa, one of leaders of the Teamsters, a union ("...one of the largest labor unions in the United States. The name and logo of the union reflect the origin of the union as a craft union when founded in 1903. A teamster was originally a person who drove a team of oxen, a horse or mule-drawn wagon, or a mule train; but the word currently refers to professional truck drivers. [1] "))
The unions have done their good deeds but now they're doing harm in making U.S. auto makers less competitive against those foreign-government subsidized auto makers. We live in a different world now.
One more thing aggravates Hubby and that's the premise that Honda cars made in the United States are really American-made. Yes, technically they are made in America (like at the plant in Marysville, Ohio) but, as the Hubster properly points out, the Honda profits go back to Honda headquarters in Japan. So much for helping the U.S. economy, and damn the trade deficit.
I'm still not crazy about the government spending more of our money and bailing out the U.S. car makers but it's going to take smarter, not to mention more fearless, people than me to get Americans to understand how and if it will work for the country in general.
I need to hear more from Hank Paulson how this additional bail-out is going to stop the bleeding in our economy, and get the creditors, the bankers who just got their billions, to let loose of some of that new cash. I guess I've heard too much talk lately about too many billions of dollars.
I'm open to a more in-depth explanation of why it would be good for our country. I'm not really interested in any more history lessons. I'm ready to hear a more detailed plan, in something more than three pages and preferably less than five hundred.