Now, unions claim they simply want "working" families to make livable wages. But Dr. Mark J. Perry, a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan, calculates that employees of the Big Three automakers' average compensation is $73 an hour. The U.S. employees of Toyota are at $48, a 52 percent differential.
GM, after all, is the company that caved to an idea that only a union or government agency could possibly concoct: a "jobs bank" program.
A jobs bank is not about jobs, per se. No, in a jobs bank, employees are paid nearly their full salaries (SET ITAL) to avoid all work (END ITAL) and hang out. Sounds more like a think tank than a job bank. And no taxpayer should be on the hook for either of those enterprises.
Now, we were warned that allowing the banking system to fail would result in a credit crunch that would turn New York City into a dust bowl. But GM shares are already worth an amount between absolute zero and the price of newspaper stock. That's what investors think of the company.
So this bailout is about taxpayer money being handed to a rotting business-union partnership that engaged voluntarily in agreements they can't honor. Let them go bankrupt and work it out among themselves like everyone else.
I, for one, have been punished enough. I already own an American car. |