The Bailout Bill

[AdminAssistant]

I'm not sure, but I believe the majority of Toyota plants are in 'right-to-work' states, i.e. no unions. The Big 3 could've got a bigger slice of the bailout pie if the auto worker's union would've negotiated a little. (Sorry, when I hear anyone makes $28/hour I have a very hard time finding sympathy).

[Boozy]

Sorry, when I hear anyone makes $28/hour I have a very hard time finding sympathy.

The problem is not that some people make $28 per hour. The question is whether or not their labour is worth that price. I'm sure there are a few engineers working at car plants that might make $28/hour and still be underpaid. But if there are high school graduates working a basic assembly line making that much, then yes, there has been some wage inflation going on and it needs to be corrected.

[protege]

But if there are high school graduates working a basic assembly line making that much, then yes, there has been some wage inflation going on and it needs to be corrected.

There's plenty of that going on. It's not just manufacturing jobs either. When Pittsburgh still had 2 daily newspapers, the union (Teamster) delivery drivers were making about $70,000 a year. Did I have any sympathy for those fools when they went on strike (for *more* wages and the home-delivery jobs) in 1992? Keep in mind that they made more than my parents...both of whom had college degrees, and the only requirement for driving a truck then, was a CDL license and a high-school diploma.

[smileyeagle1021]

I'm with Admin Assistant, Boozy and Protege... I think the UAW is learning the same thing Teamsters learned to the transit strike in Reno... thankfully that lesson was powerful enough to teach transit workers across the country. When the drivers went on strike in Reno they were making $13 an hour to start with regular increases up to $18 an hour (guaranteed increases btw) and full benefits. I know this because when they started there was some sympathy for their cause... the first letter to the editer changed that though... it was an employee in the payroll department (not unionized) who wrote about how with his college degree they were paying him only $15 an hour with no benefits. Overnight the bus drivers went from the victims to the villains (and rightfully so... the job sucks, but you are more than fairly compensated for it). We're seeing the exact same thing with UAW, the are fastly becoming the villains that are responsible for the Big 3s fall... in this case that isn't entirely fair, the main problem is management but the UAW is playing a huge part in it.

[protege]

Smiley, part of the problem...is that the unions get upset when they don't get their way. Take the coal miners' strikes of the 1980s. Granted, mining *is* a dangerous job, but it's more mechanized now than it used to be. At the time, some of the mines were being modernized in an attempt to stay competitive. That meant that some jobs were going to be cut. The union wasn't having any part of that, and went on strike.

I know all of this, because there was a mine portal just up the road from my grandparents' farm. For months, it was all over the papers--the company was saying they couldn't afford what the union wanted; the union was stamping their feet and whining like a child over it.

Some of the things weren't pretty--they'd block the roads, try to intimidate neighbors (all of whom had *nothing* to do with it!), and just be overall pests. That went on for awhile, until things returned to normal. The company somehow not only modernized the mine, but kept most of the jobs by transferring them or offering early retirement.

For awhile, all was well, until the next strike about 1997. This time, they struck over wages. This time, the company said "fuck you," and closed the mine. By then, the reserves were dwindling, and it didn't make sense to keep it open. Even now, there are still talks of reopening that, and several others. Don't think it'll happen though, since the UMW is such an entitlement whore...

[ExiledV20]

The other countries, such as China as the best example, will have plenty of trading partners to go other countries, and vice versa (which is a large reason why the US government paid out stacks of subsidies and imposed tarriffs.

Except this has turned out to be untrue. *sigh* The poor Chinese. Their factories are currently standing idle and all the stock sitting on the docks as there is no one purchasing it.

Those companies were allowed to get too big for their own good. Don't we have antitrust laws about this?

How are the companies too big? There's a lot of competition out there between them, which is what antitrust is all about. No competition is a monopoly, not being too big.

There were no regulations in place to prohibit or reduce sub-prime lending.
*snip*
There were no regulations in place to make it harder to get credit. I don't know about the rest of you, but it bugs me to see ads with "buy this crap, no credit required" and then hear of the company getting into trouble. Also, I get about a dozen credit applications *per day* in the mail.

Sure there was!
It was the Glass-Steagal Act, which was enacted in the 1930s to prevent EXACTLY this sort of problem after the 1929 economic collapse. It was repealed in 1999 under the Republican Congress, signed by President Clinton. It was considered not to be 'necessary' any more, as the banks and mortgage firms could be trusted to 'police themselves'.

Whoops.