I'll wait for your final edit so I'll have your most recent nugget of wisdom to respond to......it would be helpful if you would post Final Edition when you're done so that we'll all be aware and have the benefit of the finished product. Carry on.....
I think my last post sums up your arguments and degree of understanding of our situation up here rather well.
I don't understand how you continue to portray the UAW as this tiny component of the automotive industries. They are the automotive industry. They are so powerful that literally, they have become the tail that wags the dog. I think the problem that T has, as I do although I don't mean to put words in his mouth, is that you continue to ignore the massive amount of blame that lies at the feet of the UAW...and their reward, they get offered ownership of the brand itself!!! After decades of stealing, intimidating and just downright bullying an industry with using fear and muscle they are now being rewarded with offers of stakes in the company that they don't even want. (because then they would be accountable finally). While I am truly sympathetic to you and all of those in corollary industry that lost their job, just keep in mind those UAW guys who didn't...and those UAW guys who are getting paid 'leaves' until their jobs return.. All the while they are laughing at you and they dont feel sorry for you because you didn't join 'the brotherhood.' I believe that we labor should have the right to organize. I believe in all of that. I also believe that the UAW has been a runaway train of corruption that leaves no survivors in its wake. You continue to refuse to admit this.. It sort of taints the rest.
I don't ignore the problem caused by the UAW and I truly recognize the problems caused by poor labor management on both sides but that doesn't diminish the enormity and tragedy of the problem in automotive related industry especially here in Michigan. I don't know how far back you read my posts so here is a re-post of what kicked off this new round of "discussion": "Ran into some old clients yesterday and they had some pretty good updates on the industry I was in....which was the automotive exhibit and display business focusing on major auto shows. They knew a ton of people I knew and had been recently laid off so the info was pretty fresh. It sounded like only about 1 out of 5 people that we knew mutually was still employed and I would say we knew 40 people that fit that category so that was about 8 out of 40 still working. And not one of those individuals has ever had anything to do with the UAW." ( note: I explained in another post these were account executives, carpenter foremen and project managers...not UAW members)" We don't control what happened in the past with the UAW and the Big Three....we just live with the dire consequences and they are severe. Just yesterday we had a major freeway in Detroit closed for 8 hours because of a man who was despondent over losing his job who was threatening to jump off an overpass and he worked before layoff at Dupont Automotive. I'm not saying of course that his entire problem was caused by layoff by any means but I'll guarantee you that while employed by Dupont that this man was not a member of the UAW. It incenses me that you or BT or anyone else can just smugly lay the indirect job problems around here on the UAW as if it is something we could have done something about or is a responsibilty we somehow share with the auto companies or the UAW. WTF do you think any of those people I mentioned above or this poor SOB yesterday could have done about it? We just have to live with the crap handed to us and hell yes I believe the greedy crooks in the financial sector have a lot to do with bringing all of the existing automotive labor and marketing problems to a much faster conclusion that we might have otherwise seen. There is so much "corollary" industry associated with the automotive industry not only here in Michigan but in many other states as well and in the coming weeks....after all the plant shutdowns and with the GM bankruptcy that will certainly come the collective misery of the "corollary" industries is going to multiply significantly.
I would like to see you go out for a few beers with some of the guys I worked with on the show floor and explain how you thought we were all ( non-UAW members) to blame for this mess.....yep....that would be interesting.
My question is.... You were so ready to reap the benefits of the system of corruption created by the UAW, not realizing how nearsighted it all was. Why didn't you demand they stop being so greedy? Why aren't you calling for their heads now? Why? Because it is easier to blame George Bush and 'them fancy banker fellas over on Wall St'.. You want someone to blame.. You start at the UAW and then you head straight over to Congress. Those 2 play more of a part in the decline of your business than W or Wall St ever did.
You serious? Really....let's be real here. Also....it's amazing to me how some people can overlook the importance of the credit crisis with regard to auto sales. Sure the economy has something to do with lessened demand as well but it all works in concert. First went mortgages and housing equity then came the days of extremely tight credit and Wall Street bailouts which preceeded the final automotive meltdown which I concede was a matter of time anyway. In any event without the first two factors I would like to see how the auto firms could have fought to survive. With those first two economic maelstroms they didn't have a chance. Hey...and I do blame Bush who was at the helm the last 8 years and I blame both sides of the aisle in Congress. They are all supposed to be minding the store. Now that store has been broken into I think they will be minding the store a little more diligently and that makes some people squirm and for probably good reason.
Almost four months in office, this rock star president has changed the entire future of several generations to come. Yet the Democrats remain focused on Bush and Rush Limbaugh. Why is that?
George....what would you have done on Jan. 22nd? Nothing? Status quo? Tax credits for executive compensation on Wall Street in the hopes they would be so giddy as to reduce credit card rates for the common man? Just once I would like to hear the right explain what they would have done that would have turned around the worst economy handed to a new President since the Great Depression.
Hmmmmm.......how about raise taxes, pass a budget filled with more pork laden earmarks than imaginable that result in accumulated deficits so large that to finance the shortfall, he will be compelled to issue more debt than ALL of his predecessors COMBINED! The resulting fiscal house that will be creation of his administration and policies will be so debt burdened that we could not qualify for admission into the debt-laden countries of the EU if we tried......well done. Activity does not equal progress......
What would I do? How many times do I have to repeat it? Cut taxes dramatically . Cut expenses extensively.. Bring back troops from all non-essential foreign locales. Deploy on borders. Cut foreign aid. Those would be a good start.