We don't need no auto industry!
The Senate rejected the auto bail-out plan.
As I've covered recently, the US government has spent more money bailing out the banks in America than we spent in World War II. The fed has given out about six billion in loans, and assumed about six billion in debt . . . much of which will never be recovered. When the fed did this, they made sure to make clear to the bankers that the federal government wasn't going to interfere with banks - even after their lousy business model has created the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. No limits on how the banks spend their billions, no government oversight in boardrooms, no limitations on CEO pay, and certainly demanding that these criminal idiots who have destroyed trillions in wealth be held in any fashion accountable for their grotesque mismanagement of the world's wealth.
But auto manufacturers were expected to limit their own pay and accept a lot of direct government control - for a mere fifteen billion. For, y'know, loans that are about 0.25% of what we've given out to banks. It was rejected because . . . auto unions would immediately and drastically slash wages.
Which is, by the way, what this is all about. The auto industry is one of the only industries left in the United States that has any meaningful unionization. Oh, sure, the unions are corrupt, basically run for the benefit of the auto industries instead of the workers, but they exist. That existence gnaws at the Republicans, and they're once again willing to roll the dice with the economy and millions of jobs because they have ideological dislike of unionization.
And it's so absurd. So, there is no limitation on banking CEO's salaries because, y'know, the banks say that they need to have hundred million dollar golden parachutes to get the best people. Talented workers cost money, they say.
Isn't that equally true of industry jobs? Doesn't increase pay and benefits attract a better class of worker, and encourage that worker to do a better job at work?
The truth is that good paying jobs do create better workers. You have less turnover and more content workers who work better. Indeed, one of the big problems that a lot of mechanics in the area have is that parts for cars kinna, well, stink. All these factories were moved out of the US to sweatshops and now there's a fifty-fifty chance of any given part being able to do the job for which it was designed - so they are having to replace everything twice. And because everyone has done it, because almost all auto parts are made in sweatshops with workers who are paid pennies and hate their jobs, and take no pride in them, the parts in our cars stink. I'm not saying that I think workers should be compensated by CEOs - I'm saying that no one should be compensated by CEOs, particularly given how manifestly poorly they've handled their jobs - but I am saying that the confidence that you're going to be around for the long haul, that you can afford to pay your bills and live well, that you and your family have medical care and college funds, and there's a decent retirement awaiting when you've worked forty or fifty years creates a workplace environment where things get done better. But clearly American business - and capitalism in general - is incapable of seeing past immediate short term returns.
However, what is particularly vexing about all of this is, very much, the stark double-standards. Trillions for banks with no conditions, nothing for autos loaded with conditions. Unlimited salaries for CEOs, slashing pay and benefits for everyone else. It's crazy. Why do people put up with that kind of nonsense?
As I've covered recently, the US government has spent more money bailing out the banks in America than we spent in World War II. The fed has given out about six billion in loans, and assumed about six billion in debt . . . much of which will never be recovered. When the fed did this, they made sure to make clear to the bankers that the federal government wasn't going to interfere with banks - even after their lousy business model has created the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. No limits on how the banks spend their billions, no government oversight in boardrooms, no limitations on CEO pay, and certainly demanding that these criminal idiots who have destroyed trillions in wealth be held in any fashion accountable for their grotesque mismanagement of the world's wealth.
But auto manufacturers were expected to limit their own pay and accept a lot of direct government control - for a mere fifteen billion. For, y'know, loans that are about 0.25% of what we've given out to banks. It was rejected because . . . auto unions would immediately and drastically slash wages.
Which is, by the way, what this is all about. The auto industry is one of the only industries left in the United States that has any meaningful unionization. Oh, sure, the unions are corrupt, basically run for the benefit of the auto industries instead of the workers, but they exist. That existence gnaws at the Republicans, and they're once again willing to roll the dice with the economy and millions of jobs because they have ideological dislike of unionization.
And it's so absurd. So, there is no limitation on banking CEO's salaries because, y'know, the banks say that they need to have hundred million dollar golden parachutes to get the best people. Talented workers cost money, they say.
Isn't that equally true of industry jobs? Doesn't increase pay and benefits attract a better class of worker, and encourage that worker to do a better job at work?
The truth is that good paying jobs do create better workers. You have less turnover and more content workers who work better. Indeed, one of the big problems that a lot of mechanics in the area have is that parts for cars kinna, well, stink. All these factories were moved out of the US to sweatshops and now there's a fifty-fifty chance of any given part being able to do the job for which it was designed - so they are having to replace everything twice. And because everyone has done it, because almost all auto parts are made in sweatshops with workers who are paid pennies and hate their jobs, and take no pride in them, the parts in our cars stink. I'm not saying that I think workers should be compensated by CEOs - I'm saying that no one should be compensated by CEOs, particularly given how manifestly poorly they've handled their jobs - but I am saying that the confidence that you're going to be around for the long haul, that you can afford to pay your bills and live well, that you and your family have medical care and college funds, and there's a decent retirement awaiting when you've worked forty or fifty years creates a workplace environment where things get done better. But clearly American business - and capitalism in general - is incapable of seeing past immediate short term returns.
However, what is particularly vexing about all of this is, very much, the stark double-standards. Trillions for banks with no conditions, nothing for autos loaded with conditions. Unlimited salaries for CEOs, slashing pay and benefits for everyone else. It's crazy. Why do people put up with that kind of nonsense?