[Alberta's Child]

That's a valid point, but let's remember that the auto industry in this country has long been a textbook case of fascism at work. It's a simple three-way relationship where everyone benefits except the customer/taxpayer:

1. The UAW delivers the votes to their favored politicians.

2. The corporate management finances the political campaigns of those elected officials, and pays their UAW workers far more than the market would ever support without their political influence.

3. The politicians vote to appropriate taxpayer funds to support the company with direct subsidies and/or unnecessary purchases of the products the company makes.

This fascist scheme worked fine in the post-WW2 decades when the U.S. was the only major country to emerge from the war with its industrial capacity intact. It's been a disaster ever since the rest of the world caught up to us. That's why you're reading a story like this about GM even as Asian and German auto manufacturers are opening new plants all over the Sun Belt.

[central_va]

Except half the cars are built by non-union workers. Overall, the union bogey man is a joke. Only 10% of the US manufacturing workforce is in a union.

[Pelham]

“That’s why you’re reading a story like this about GM even as Asian and German auto manufacturers are opening new plants all over the Sun Belt.”

Foreign car firms collaborate with their governments with the goal of increasing their American market share, while keeping their home markets free from American competition.

Japan uses their keiretsu structure to do this. Koreans the chaebol.

The Reagan administration was the last that refused to turn a blind eye to this and pretend that American firms are operating on a level playing field with their foreign competitors.

[Pelham]

“That’s why you’re reading a story like this about GM even as Asian and German auto manufacturers are opening new plants all over the Sun Belt.”

Foreign car firms collaborate with their governments with the goal of increasing their American market share, while keeping their home markets free from American competition.

Japan uses their keiretsu structure to do this. Koreans the chaebol.

The Reagan administration was the last that refused to turn a blind eye to this and pretend that American firms are operating on a level playing field with their foreign competitors.