The Austrian economists are pointing out that the reason the Big Three are closing, is because their operational costs are much higher than overseas companies; and the reasons their costs are higher, is because of laws that supposedly benefit workers at the expense of employers - especially benefits secured by unions.
Yeah, unsurprisingly it's really popular to blame the unions ... darn those poorer and largely-minority people! ... but seriously? REALLY? You're going to blame one half of a bargaining unit -- and the weaker half at that -- for failures that they couldn't have possibly prevented or controlled, even if they'd done nothing but striven to
( ... )
The point is, the laws that supposedly benefit the workers now threaten to put them out of jobs, unless their employers are bailed out at the expense of taxpayers (ie., mostly other workers and the middle class). Either these ostensive benefits to workers turn out not to be in their benefit, really, or else they benefit some workers at the expense of others (and not the rich, at that).
Do I think workers should have good health coverage? Of course I do. Do I think this way of ensuring it is effective and sustainable? No, I don't.
I guess I didn't really address your concerns about deeper structural problems; and I'm not sure I really know what to say, except that if these are the real underlying problems, then these companies must tank so that smarter companies can step in and employ the same labor force.
Recessions involve ugly transitions; the faster they can be allowed to sort themselves out, the better for the worker in the long run.
Oh, *that's* easy. Come here, where the usual government mandate to provide equal access to good transportation has been destroyed by industry greed and manipulation, and take a look around. You've got racial and economic discrimination on a scale not seen even in the deep south, environmental fuckups beyond belief, and and entire major city that's been eaten from the inside out by the lack of jobs caused by companies refusing to deal with the insanely bad infrastructure.
Read the history of Detroit -- it was built to put and keep people in the places the auto industry wanted them, which is how they prevented workers, and for a while even customers, from 'going elsewhere'. They never could have had that kind of stranglehold, or caused this level of damage, without having been able to control public transport. There can be no such thing as equal rights, fair living conditions, fair working conditions or free-market-style commerce without fair (and therefore NOT corporate-controlled) transportation.
To clarify, I'm NOT in favor of bailing out the car companies (and neither is Moore, if you read). But I do think that transportation is deadly important, and that Detroit shows that it can't be left in the hands of, or subject to the selfish influence of, corporations. You haven't really said why either of those statements is false, but I suspect it's because you think that given some perfect formula, unregulated corporations would just magically not do everything they've done to Detroit. Which I'm just never going to swallow, sorry.
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Do I think workers should have good health coverage? Of course I do. Do I think this way of ensuring it is effective and sustainable? No, I don't.
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Recessions involve ugly transitions; the faster they can be allowed to sort themselves out, the better for the worker in the long run.
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Read the history of Detroit -- it was built to put and keep people in the places the auto industry wanted them, which is how they prevented workers, and for a while even customers, from 'going elsewhere'. They never could have had that kind of stranglehold, or caused this level of damage, without having been able to control public transport. There can be no such thing as equal rights, fair living conditions, fair working conditions or free-market-style commerce without fair (and therefore NOT corporate-controlled) transportation.
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