Silver spoons and rusted wrenches (Marxist rant alert)

LA Times ^ | 11/22/05 | Bakopoulos

[pabianice]

THE AMERICAN auto industry is dead. With General Motors announcing, days before Thanksgiving, 30,000 more layoffs and nine plant closings, the Rust Belt just got the final strike of the sledgehammer. When GM finally goes down for good, all the rusted remains of that region will crumble.

My grandfather was a UAW man who slapped dashboards into Mustangs at the Ford Rouge plant just outside Detroit; my grandmother sweated out the first shift at Cabot tool and die. Immigrants with no formal education, their union wages allowed them to provide their family with a nice home, two cars and, for my mother, a college education, paid for in cash.

Later, my grandparents' savings helped my family buy a home. After my parents' divorce, those resources were instrumental in helping my mother maintain a car and pay unexpected bills, school tuition and property taxes. A decade later, when my wife and I bought our first home, my grandfather's long-saved UAW wages gave us much of our down payment. Most citizens of the Rust Belt — that center of American manufacturing and a longtime Democratic stronghold — can thank relatives who toiled in exhausting factories for their current blessings.

But for my generation, born at the end of America's Golden Age (I was born in 1975, post-Vietnam, post-Watergate, post-energy crisis, post-labor), life in the Rust Belt has been a steady process of downward mobility. I was lucky enough to write a novel about the Rust Belt that got me out of debt and low-wage work; most of the people I write about have not been so fortunate...

[pabianice]

1. HillaryCare

2. Retraining the Rust Belt (you and I pay for it)

3. Save the rust belt's 40 years of Dem mismanagement with your taxes

[Semper Paratus]

Another industry run into the ground by unionism.

[frankiep]

But the rust belt is entirely within the "United States of Canada". Why the hell should the people of "Jesusland" have to pay for the task of rebuilding a huge, extremely mismanaged portion of another nation?

[Dallas59]

$80,000 a year to turn a screw....

[tgusa]

What an absolute crock of sh*t. The unions bought and paid for the state governments of the rust belt - now they're paying the price. Why are foreign automobile manufacturers building plants in South Carolina, Tennessee, etc? It's because of 'right to work' laws. The sooner the rust belt wakes up to this fact the better off they will be.

[Emile]

Waaaaaaah. We've priced ourselves out of the world auto market. We've nearly bankrupted our companies with our excessive union demands. Now, we expect the federal welfare system, er, government to bail us out. We're entitled. Waaaaaaaah. Capitalism failed us. Now we want socialism, paid for by everyone else. Waaaaaaaaaaaah.

[The Great RJ]

The unions and auto industry have only themselves to blame. After more than 30 years of buying American cars I bought a Hyundai Santa Fe. What sold me was the 10 year/100,000 warranty and the obvious quality for an affordable price. I looked at American models and found poor fit and finish, obvious poor quality and design and a mediocre warranty. I seriously doubt I will buy another American car unless the industry seriously shapes up.

[joe fonebone]

Don't forget the highest taxes anywhere, and the most restrictive business environment anywhere ( good "ol Michigan ). Our socialist gevernor ( born and raised in canada ) is absolutely the worst thing to hit this state in 2 decades. But, she is a lib, so the union masses will vote for her no matter what.......

[ClaireSolt]

And, this so-called middle class of ignorant, overpaid union workers has none of the characteristics of the real American middle class. They are not prudent, thrifty, sober, or charitable. Giving them too much power and money has just coarsened our cuture and threatened our republic.

[Lurker]

GM is no longer an auto company.

They are a pension fund manager that happens to also make cars.

L

[Lekker 1]

...life in the Rust Belt has been a steady process of downward mobility

One word for ya...MOVE

[Long Distance Rider]

I read an article once that the CEO of GM and Otis elevator were asked what business they were in> GM CEO answered, "The automobile business." The Otis CEO answered, "The transportation business." I wonder which company is the healthiest today.

[tgusa]

I feel your pain. We have plenty of room here in Virginia. Come on down.

[Tulane]

DING DING DING!!! Why does Mississippi (Nissan), Alabama (BMW) and Tennessee (Saturn) all have auto-manufacturing plants built within the last ten years...Hmmmm.

[tuff_schlitz]

"One word for ya...MOVE" EXACTLY! Go where the jobs are! It's like ol Sam Kinison used to say about the Ethiopians: "You live in a F***ing DESERT! Nothing grows here! Nothing's GONNA grow here! Grab you kids and you $hit, we'll make one trip! If you live in an area with a depressed economy, you HAVE a choice! GET OUT! Use some of that "well-saved" (read: well-extorted) UAW money and go back to school to learn a REAL trade! It's like a guy running a protection racket who is now crying because the people he was extorting have gone broke. Well, catch me in a better mood and I'll tell you what I REALLY think about these whiners.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

It is with deep regret that I see GM in the straits it finds itself in. However, I believe that the chickens are finally coming home to roost. In my opinion, the last good year for "American" cars was 1968 when you could walk into a showroom and buy a 300 hp V-8 which would give you a true 20 mpg at an interstate speed. (I drive one today.) Recall at that time one could also buy 110 octane gasoline for those engines (Sunoco and in the west Chevron Supreme). The fatal blow was struck in 1973 when the pollution controls were installed and the engines were essentially choked to death by various means.

Today Detroit has finally learned how to build the same performance V-8s on poorer quality gasoline and a tremendous number of pollution requirements. As an aside do you realize that the tailpipe emissions from a new automobile is cleaner that the air that it ingests to operate. This means that SUV drivers are doing a service to their country by cleaning the air! Park them in the center of a large city and let them idle and they will clean the air. You don't read that in very many places do you?

Back to the main idea however. Now Detroit, and "American" cars built where only the Lord knows, face formidable competition from "foreign" cars built in the South. GM cars, like the dinosaurs, changed too slowly and offered a lower level of performance and reliability that the "foreign" manufactures. ( I realize that there are some exceptions to that statement.)

What should we do? Let the market place reward and punish. It is the American way.

[Tulane]

It's simple, GM's spreadsheet contains a labor cost that foreign companies simply don't have. For every GM car built today, $1,500 of the sales price represents labor costs. They are losing and will continue to lose until they restructure that piece of the puzzle. Union Politicans lie, numbers don't.

[tgusa]

Ithink GM and Ford realize that (30000 jobs to be cut at GM, 4000 at Ford). They DO still build quality vehicles (I drive a 2004 F-150, built at the Norfolk VA plant), but they have to learn to compete to survive. I thought they had learned that lesson in the early '70s, when Toyota and Nissan were kicking their butts, but apparently not. It's sad, but when all is said and done, in today's global economy it's survival of the fittest.

[layman]

But for my generation, born at the end of America's Golden Age

The author is thirty years old so I'm going to cut him some slack. He is five or ten years away from figuring out that socialism simply doesn't work.

[joe fonebone]

wifie and I are looking for a place to winter when we retire...how is the weather down there in winter?