michigan relies on the automakers. thousands of companies that supply to the big 3 are in jeopardy as well. roughly 33% of michigan jobs will be lost... will holytaco hire me to make smartass remarks when i lose my job to foriegners?
American auto companies are uncompetitive, because of their enormous labor costs.
They need to dissolve, so they can eliminate their labor/union contracts and start up again.....when they do, so supporting vendors, distributors, etc.....will then be fine.
Just google the average salary or wage of an auto worker.....see how much the AVERAGE auto worker makes per hour or year.
Multiply by millions of employees, and you will see why the auto industry is screwed, bailout or not.
I have nothing but sympathy for everyone who lost their jobs, but I don't think that this article was aimed at the 33% of the michigan workers, but rather the CEOs of which at least two of the three (the third one had no comment) made over 12 million dollars last year. Push comes to shove, Bobby will retire and live happily ever after, mean while Stevie will wind up having to feed his family on a fraction of what little he made until his unemployment runs out at which time he will have to decide to rob a bank or cash in on his life insurance policy. Perhaps Bobby could have planed ahead like his japanese neighbor instead of getting greedy, forcing him to throw Stevie across the rail road tracks.
In the end, Bobby will be bailed out, Stevie will be replaced by some guy named Kim and the rest of us will be forced to remenis (I have no clue how to spell it and I am too fuckin' lazy to look it up) upon the good old days.
Tyler is fucking right on. The labor unions created this mess. The companies should receive no bail out. They will then be forced to file for bankruptcy. This doesn't necessarily mean they will stop making cars, and be forced to lay off millions of people. It means they will be forced to re-negotiate the labor contracts, so they can be more competitive on the global market. The cost of the cars needs to come down and the quality needs to go up. If this means that the labor unions have to settle for lower wages, oh-fucking-well. Lower pay is ulitimately better than no pay, right?
Yes, it's the labor unions that are the weight around the neck of the auto industry, causing it to sink faster than it can swim. But it's also the fault of the executives, who agreed to the insane terms of working with the unions. If they'd shown some backbone decades ago, they wouldn't have sold out the future of their companies to the unions. Way to go, morons.
All this talk of union labor reminds me of that fat Italian Brooklyn dude in Eraser who walks around with his hired muscle and saying "no one screws with the union."
The reason people don't buy American cars is that they're mostly gas-guzzlers and aren't as reliable as Japanese designed vehicles (generally speaking, of course). That has everything to do with short-sighted corporate management (who gambled on never having to deal with increased demand for or legally required fuel efficiency) and sub-par design (both non-unionized job classes, by the way), and next to nothing to do with manufacturing using union labor.
Yes, union labor costs more. But that only affects the sunk costs of doing business - the blame for decreasing revenue and loss of market share can only be placed at the doorstep of those whose responsibility it is to increase revenue and market share - the managers, marketers, & engineers.
Tomorrow, when you take your legally mandated lunch break, or freely get up to go pee whenever you want, thank a former union member.
Also, just to be clear, the automakers are asking for a loan that will be paid back with interest, not a bailout that will require no payback. start rippin on fannie mae, freddy mac, and aig, as they're not paying a dime back to the government.
(11 Comments)
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Holy Taco Goes to the Bahamas
December 2nd, 2008 at 05:47 pm
Apparently not a fan of the domestic auto companies.
December 2nd, 2008 at 09:16 pm
michigan relies on the automakers. thousands of companies that supply to the big 3 are in jeopardy as well. roughly 33% of michigan jobs will be lost... will holytaco hire me to make smartass remarks when i lose my job to foriegners?
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
December 4th, 2008 at 12:38 am
where do i send my application?
December 3rd, 2008 at 04:41 am
American auto companies are uncompetitive, because of their enormous labor costs.
They need to dissolve, so they can eliminate their labor/union contracts and start up again.....when they do, so supporting vendors, distributors, etc.....will then be fine.
Just google the average salary or wage of an auto worker.....see how much the AVERAGE auto worker makes per hour or year.
Multiply by millions of employees, and you will see why the auto industry is screwed, bailout or not.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
I have nothing but sympathy for everyone who lost their jobs, but I don't think that this article was aimed at the 33% of the michigan workers, but rather the CEOs of which at least two of the three (the third one had no comment) made over 12 million dollars last year. Push comes to shove, Bobby will retire and live happily ever after, mean while Stevie will wind up having to feed his family on a fraction of what little he made until his unemployment runs out at which time he will have to decide to rob a bank or cash in on his life insurance policy. Perhaps Bobby could have planed ahead like his japanese neighbor instead of getting greedy, forcing him to throw Stevie across the rail road tracks.
In the end, Bobby will be bailed out, Stevie will be replaced by some guy named Kim and the rest of us will be forced to remenis (I have no clue how to spell it and I am too fuckin' lazy to look it up) upon the good old days.
December 3rd, 2008 at 05:21 am
Tyler is fucking right on. The labor unions created this mess. The companies should receive no bail out. They will then be forced to file for bankruptcy. This doesn't necessarily mean they will stop making cars, and be forced to lay off millions of people. It means they will be forced to re-negotiate the labor contracts, so they can be more competitive on the global market. The cost of the cars needs to come down and the quality needs to go up. If this means that the labor unions have to settle for lower wages, oh-fucking-well. Lower pay is ulitimately better than no pay, right?
December 3rd, 2008 at 05:49 am
Yes, it's the labor unions that are the weight around the neck of the auto industry, causing it to sink faster than it can swim. But it's also the fault of the executives, who agreed to the insane terms of working with the unions. If they'd shown some backbone decades ago, they wouldn't have sold out the future of their companies to the unions. Way to go, morons.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
All this talk of union labor reminds me of that fat Italian Brooklyn dude in Eraser who walks around with his hired muscle and saying "no one screws with the union."
December 4th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Are you guys nuts?
The reason people don't buy American cars is that they're mostly gas-guzzlers and aren't as reliable as Japanese designed vehicles (generally speaking, of course). That has everything to do with short-sighted corporate management (who gambled on never having to deal with increased demand for or legally required fuel efficiency) and sub-par design (both non-unionized job classes, by the way), and next to nothing to do with manufacturing using union labor.
Yes, union labor costs more. But that only affects the sunk costs of doing business - the blame for decreasing revenue and loss of market share can only be placed at the doorstep of those whose responsibility it is to increase revenue and market share - the managers, marketers, & engineers.
Tomorrow, when you take your legally mandated lunch break, or freely get up to go pee whenever you want, thank a former union member.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Also, just to be clear, the automakers are asking for a loan that will be paid back with interest, not a bailout that will require no payback. start rippin on fannie mae, freddy mac, and aig, as they're not paying a dime back to the government.
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