Time to Secede

[prole]

"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back."

Leo Tolstoy

 

Thanks for the Thatcherite perspective.

 

There is no such thing as society, only individuals.

Edited December 13, 2008 by prole

[STP]

No one with an IQ over 60 has bought a Big-Three auto in years anyways because THEY ARE SHIT.

 

 

Thanks for the Canadian perspective.

 

Beyond Wage Cuts, Beyond the Bailout

Sam Gindin for the Windsor Star

 

The global crisis quickly engulfing us threatens to become the worst

since the Great Depression, and this means that past ways of doing

things need to be fundamentally rethought. But Gord Henderson’s focus

on wage cuts for autoworkers (Windsor Star, November 20, 2008) is the

absolutely wrong way to go ­ that much we already learned from the

1930s, when competitive cuts in workers’ wages only aggravated the

depression. When Henderson responds to CAW President Ken Lewenza’s

defence of workers’ wages with a glib “Tell that to all those low-wage

Mexican autoworkers,” what exactly does this mean?

 

In the face of the general concern that consumers are retrenching (and

business consequently holding back investments), how much sense does

it make to advocate autoworkers setting a pattern for lower wages and

less purchasing power? And what kind of notion of progress and vision

for the future does the target of Mexican wage standards suggest?

 

The fact is that Canadian hourly compensation in the auto industry is

now below the U.S., at about par with Japan and less than three

quarters of hourly compensation in Germany (U.S. Bureau of Labour data

for 2006, adjusted for current exchange rates). Because the industry

is integrated into the American industry, Canada is affected by the

higher costs in the U.S., particularly which of health care. But here,

too, the answer is hardly to blame the workers, but rather to point to

the social and economic stupidity of the U.S. not having the kind of

single-payer public health care system that is common in the rest of

the developed world.

 

Union Shortfalls

 

Where the union can be blamed is not in what it has achieved for

working people, but in its refusal to play a leading role in

challenging the direction of the industry, especially in terms of its

laggard move to fuel-efficient, non-polluting vehicles. Saving future

jobs ­ and also addressing the thousands of lost jobs of former

members whom the bailout won’t bring back ­ necessitates correcting

that earlier shortcoming in two specific ways.

 

First, as absolutely essential as the bailout is, it won’t end the

crisis in the auto industry even if the Detroit-based companies adjust

their models. That’s because the industry has so much excess capacity

and slow growth will characterize at least the next few years, if not

beyond. This means that even as the union lobbies to achieve the

bailout, it needs to raise its perspective beyond auto. It needs to

start thinking about the application of existing facilities and skills

to a larger set of products. Here, the environment re-enters, but

rather than being a threat to jobs it holds out the potential of

adding jobs. If the environment is going to be seriously addressed in

this century, it will mean changing not just the kind of cars we drive

and how they are powered, but everything about how we work, consume,

travel, live. To that end, auto’s assembly, component and tool and die

shops, along with its body of skilled and committed workers, are an

asset that can be converted into producing wind turbines, solar

panels, parts for mass transit vehicles, more energy-sensitive

industrial machinery and more energy efficient home appliances.

 

Second, we need to move from thinking about saving the auto industry

to saving communities. The auto industry is concentrated into

particular communities that, like Windsor, were in crisis well before

GM asked for a bailout. What’s at issue is not just hanging on to jobs

in auto (which, as productivity grows, will continue to decrease over

time even with a bailout) but also finding productive jobs for all

those already unemployed or looking for their first job. To address

this crisis in the community means not only introducing new car models

and addressing the kind of conversions of Windsor’s vast productive

potential raised above, but also fixing and expanding Windsor’s

deteriorated infrastructure (like other municipalities, Windsor has a

long list of such projects sitting on the shelf) and addressing the

social needs that make cities into ‘communities’ (from resources for

public facilities and sports, to converting vacant lots into green

parks and gardens; from child-care to in-home assistance for the

disabled and the aged).

 

‘Leave it to the Market’ or Democratic Planning?

 

It should be obvious that none of this can happen if we ‘leave it to

the market,’ or even with some ad-hoc patchwork government

intervention. It requires serious national and city-level planning and

planning that develops the democratic structures to encourage and

facilitate popular participation. This takes us far beyond the auto

industry and many might say ’sorry, I’m too busy surviving to think

about that.’ But that response has a lot to do with why autoworkers

are in their current awful predicament. If there’s anything the recent

past teaches us is that if we don’t start acing on the future now ­ if

we think it will fix itself ­ then ‘later’ becomes too late, or at

least confronts us with even more difficult problems.

 

Survival tomorrow and in the future means daring to think and act

‘big’ today. What kind of country do we want? What kind of community

do we want to live in? How do we get there? •

 

Sam Gindin was the former assistant to the past two presidents of the

Canadian Auto Workers and is currently the Packer Chair in Social

Justice at York University.

 

Another bait and switch? Will the US taxpayer indirectly subsidize our automakers forays into the emerging markets?

 

GM opens second India plant

Ford Edge headed to Brazil

 

Procurement, manufacturing and assembly are global operations but what really hits home is the effect on the American middle class in terms of wages.

 

Although we decry when the following happens: Air Force dumps Boeing for Northrop, Airbus, a similar effect would have occurred if Boeing would have been awarded the contract since Boeing also is a multinational operation.

 

So if trade protectionism and unionism are not the answer, what is?

 

 

[Peakpimp]

Stupid Fed

 

Should I be worried when my countries central bank is upset because American households are generating LESS debt? After all, the LAST thing we would want is debt free Americans right? Makes it so damn hard to keep em' punching the clock.

I love the last line "mortgages and credit-card debt -- marked the fourth straight quarterly decline since total family net worth hit an all-time high of $63.6 trillion in the July-September quarter of 2007."

Family Net Worth at an all time high... sounds terrible.

[prole]

Workers have to start thinking outside the national cage.

[STP]

Workers have to start thinking outside the national cage.

 

Spatial, physical boundaries? Geopolitical boundaries? Nations will not exist in the future. Is it not the trajectory presented by history and the evolving technocultural progression that we are bound to?

 

[video:youtube]P772Eb63qIY

[G-spotter]

So we had this hideously awful auto bailout package, which suffered most obviously from the fact that (a) the Big Three still have no real plan of how they're going to spend the money, and (b) the Car Czar would not be able to make enforce decisions, but could only "negotiate" with the various interest groups involved, who once they had their bailout might well have told the Czar to take a flying leap.

 

So then the hideously awful bailout package was then shot down by the Republican Senator from Honda--- sorry, from Mercedes--- sorry, from Hyundai--- sorry, from Alabama, where all those companies have assembly plants, and who could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that his own state would prosper all the more once the Big Three were out of the picture.

 

Though that's not what he said. What he said was that he wanted the workers to agree to cut open their chests, remove their still-bleeding hearts, and place them on altars to be smashed by sledgehammers weilded by himself and other Deep South Republicans, and do all of this before any negotiations took place. (They had obviously learned this "We demand that you surrender before we will even talk to you" negotiation strategy from George W., who is now probably wondering why no one ever talks to him.)

 

So now, because the catastrophe of a bailout looks to be followed by yet another economic catastrophe as the Three and all their suppliers and dealers die, throwing even more millions out of work, it looks as if George W. will have to rescue the Three on his own, without help from his own party.

 

(Who knew that George W. would end his presidency as such a leftist? Certainly not I.)

 

But while this drama is being played out, a company called Better Place is doing an end-run around the whole miserable automobile infrastructure, using a strategy derived from--- get this--- mobile phones.

 

The plan works like this:

 

1. Generate electricity from renewable wind and solar.

 

2. Sell the power to electric cars at power stations set up throughout the country. You can either plug the car into a socket or swap out the old battery for one that's fully-charged. The user buys miles for his car in the same way he buys minutes for his cellphone.

 

The car you use is either bought or leased from Renault or Nissan, who are participating in the program.

 

Charging and battery-swap stations are even now being set up in Denmark, Israel, Australia, the State of Hawaii, and the Bay Area. Stands are also going to be set up in Yokohama, which is Japan's Detroit.

 

According to this article by Thomas L. Friedman, "our bailout of Detroit will be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into the CD music business on the eve of the birth of the iPod and iTunes . . . "

 

(Friedman's overstating here. No matter what your energy model, somebody still has to make the cars. In a factory, we presume.)

 

"What Agassi, the founder of Better Place, is saying is that there is a new way to generate mobility, not just music, using the same platform. It just takes the right kind of auto battery — the iPod in this story — and the right kind of national plug-in network — the iTunes store — to make the business model work for electric cars at six cents a mile. The average American is paying today around 12 cents a mile for gasoline transportation, which also adds to global warming and strengthens petro-dictators . . . "

 

"If we miss the chance to win the race for Car 2.0 because we keep mindlessly bailing out Car 1.0, there will be no one to blame more than Detroit’s new shareholders: we the taxpayers."

 

[Dechristo]

Oh, and UAW workers? Fuck you.

 

 

Agreed. UAW workers' hourly wage, including benefits, is $70+/hr while workers at "scab" or non-union plants putting together those trash Toyotas and horrible Hondas make $40+/hr (80-90 grand a year for a factory job is no pittance).

 

The UAW would do best to realize they've priced themselves out of a job.

[marylou]

The math on this is fuzzy at best. The auto workers make around 30 bucks an hour. Average in some OT (and yes, hours over 8 in a day is a legit number, every worker should get this, as an hourly worker who works way over 8 in a day on a regular basis I say it's right--follow me around on a long day and you'll "get it" immediately). Factor in some vacation (probably 2 weeks a year, maybe three), some retirement benefits, some Health and Welfare (you know it as medical insurance) and then add in about 30% for overhead* and it's easily 70 an hour. Mine is 50-60 dollars an hour for shitty health care and no vacation, and no, I don't make nearly that by the hour.

 

*the overhead is payroll, hiring/firing costs, and the other basic expenses associated with any employee.You can add that onto any worker hourly cost right on top of whatever they make.

[tvashtarkatena]

Oh, and UAW workers? Fuck you.

 

 

Agreed. UAW workers' hourly wage, including benefits, is $70+/hr while workers at "scab" or non-union plants putting together those trash Toyotas and horrible Hondas make $40+/hr (80-90 grand a year for a factory job is no pittance).

 

The UAW would do best to realize they've priced themselves out of a job.

 

Not only is the math wrong and the apples and oranges mixed up, but this is a classic misunderstanding of the issue as a result of getting your thinking from USA Today headlines.

 

The burden on the auto companies isn't so much the hourly wage, but the retirement benefits; not due to the fact that UAW is overly greedy, as many common American's think, but due to the fact that the auto companies retain their workers for much longer than most other industries, including their non-unionized competitors. This results in a more expensive retirement benefits liability. The more admirable the auto companies behave by retaining their workers, the more penalized they are for doing so. This is a compelling argument for nationalized retirement benefits that amortize the burden of treating your workers well by retaining them longer across all industries. Some 'free marketeers' here would simply argue for the 'Logan's Run' option, fire the motherfuckers when they hit 40, and let McDonald's retrain them. Others here would argue that this isn't really the kind of society we want to support and live in.

 

In addition, to argue that the auto companies' situation is due to any one factor is, again, to parrot some idiot's blog, rather than to analyze and understand the situation for yourself.

 

Popularity and profitability of SUVs, rapid change in gas prices, poor long term planning, lower quality, too many models and factories, high executive compensation not sufficiently tied to company performance, government pampering in the form of lax CAFE standards, the FINANCIAL CRISIS, and, yes, labor costs are all to blame. As for the union part, it's really a minor player, financially, compared to the other factors, given the relatively low percentage of Cost of Goods Sold made up by labor costs. But unions are a political football, a game of obfuscation and misinformation that folks like DeChristo happily play along with.

Edited December 14, 2008 by tvashtarkatena

[j_b]

Agreed. UAW workers' hourly wage, including benefits, is $70+/hr while workers at "scab" or non-union plants putting together those trash Toyotas and horrible Hondas make $40+/hr (80-90 grand a year for a factory job is no pittance).

 

The UAW would do best to realize they've priced themselves out of a job.

 

Classic regurgitation of corporate lies by a useful idiot.

[j_b]

So we had this hideously awful auto bailout package [...]

 

Yes, the terms of the bailout were very poor for the reasons you indicated but I don't think it was intended to be more than a short term stop gap to prevent the laying off of millions of people, which could take what's left of the economy into a death spiral.

[prole]

Oh, and UAW workers? Fuck you.

 

 

Agreed. UAW workers' hourly wage, including benefits, is $70+/hr while workers at "scab" or non-union plants putting together those trash Toyotas and horrible Hondas make $40+/hr (80-90 grand a year for a factory job is no pittance).

 

The UAW would do best to realize they've priced themselves out of a job.

 

America would do best to realize that the lack of a national health care system has priced itself out of a middle class.

[Dechristo]

uh-oh, you folks discerned that the numbers are a libelous obfuscation foisted by those who are corporate whores and enemies of The Worker like National Public Radio.

 

A more accurate analogy of comparison is not "apples and oranges", but that of a corpulent, plodding hog to any creature over 50% more lithe.

[tvashtarkatena]

Weird. You used to be at least somewhat intelligible.

[bradleym]

Workers have to start thinking outside the national cage.

 

Spatial, physical boundaries? Geopolitical boundaries? Nations will not exist in the future. Is it not the trajectory presented by history and the evolving technocultural progression that we are bound to?

 

i nominate this video for 'swift boat of the year' award. Rove might not agree, but he would certainly be proud of the clever blend of 'facts', assertions and pop historical causation, bookmarked of course by scenes from one of the stupidest movies ever made. brilliant, really. even rousseau would be impressed.

[prole]

Is it not the trajectory presented by history and the evolving technocultural progression that we are bound to?

 

Who is "we" and does it include the residents of Gary, Indiana?

 

 

 

[Peakpimp]

What if there was no state? No money? No religious segregation? I have to agree with STP. The old ideals of rabid nationalist fervor, of racial, religious and social separation are starting not to work anymore. I'm afraid that if we don't allow those behaviors to slip into antiquity and focus on a global society we will surely destroy ourselves.

[bradleym]

What if there was no state? No money? No religious segregation? I have to agree with STP. The old ideals of rabid nationalist fervor, of racial, religious and social separation are starting not to work anymore. I'm afraid that if we don't allow those behaviors to slip into antiquity and focus on a global society we will surely destroy ourselves.

 

what if humans ceased to be human? then what?

 

The old ideals of rabid nationalist fervor, of racial, religious and social separation are starting not to work anymore.

 

are you sure about this? not work for whom?

[G-spotter]

The fact remains that whatever you pay your workers, if you make a shitty product all the marketing in the world is not going to save your company.

 

The Big Three make shit on wheels. Their market share has been in steady decline for decades, directly as a result.

 

Saving a bad company to make more shit is in no one's interest. Lt them go bankrupt and sell their factories to someone that can make some good cars and trucks with them.

[prole]

The fact remains that whatever you pay your workers, if you make a shitty product all the marketing in the world is not going to save your company.

 

I'm lovin' it.

 

[Peakpimp]

what if humans ceased to be human? then what?

 

I would like to believe that looking at other people and thinking oh your a Jew or Islamic or Catholic or French or South African or maybe rich or poor or fat or thin are NOT the qualities that make us human. But rather that we can look at each other and think, wow you need to breath air and drink water and feel the life giving energy of the sun to exist just like I do. You have fears, and love, hopes and dreams and the will to see them through, amazingly just like I do.

Wow how about that, when you get down to it, we're not American or Iraqi or Chinese or Christian or Atheist but in fact just HUMAN.

 

 

are you sure about this? not work for whom?

Not working for anyone unfortunately because it seems that preservation of those ideals involves destroying each other.

 

 

Some people call me a dreamer... but I'm not the only one.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2008 by Peakpimp

[Mr. Spock]

I would like to believe that looking at other people and thinking oh your a Jew or Islamic or Catholic or French or South African or maybe rich or poor or fat or thin are NOT the qualities that make us human. But rather that we can look at each other and think, wow you need to breath air and drink water and feel the life giving energy of the sun to exist just like I do. You have fears, and love, hopes and dreams and the will to see them through, amazingly just like I do.

Wow how about that, when you get down to it, we're not American or Iraqi or Chinese or Christian or Atheist but in fact just HUMAN.

 

Most logical.

[bradleym]

The fact remains that whatever you pay your workers, if you make a shitty product all the marketing in the world is not going to save your company.

 

I'm lovin' it.

 

 

don't worry prole, our new McCrapola Czar will ensure we only have tasteful, healthful and culturally-sound food.

[bradleym]

 

 

Some people call me a dreamer... but I'm not the only one.

 

 

yup, you're a dreamer. not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Dechristo]

Weird. You used to be at least somewhat intelligible.

 

You're gonna need to get accustomed to the fact that at your advanced age many of your faculties, including comprehension, wane.