Since WW2 we have been manipulating the Middle East (and now Central Asia) to assure our oil companies access to oil that they will sell at a profit. Now that the Saudis are rich and well educated they have a piece of the action. The Bush family has always been in the middle of any oil deal involving the Middle East (and now Central Asia), so the only surprise is how brazenly the Bush administration can lie about their motives, and more surprising how gullible the American people are. I suppose if Bush told the truth there would be a demand to share the potential goodies with the public. Since no one from either party can be elected without money from Big Oil and very well laundered money from the Saudis, the Democrats have a very hard time staking out a position. They just have to hope that the public is disenchanted enough with the Republicans to elect Democrats, without the Democrats having to go against Big Oil too overtly.

OK, so those who were overpaid to begin with (auto workers, especially) should be subsidized by the rest of us when they can't find a job anywhere near their former pay rate. A lot of those guys made $100,000 to $200,000 a year during the heydays of SUV and pickup sales. Of course they worked seven days a week for a couple of years. They got used to an income that was totally out of line with reality. Now their summer homes in North Michigan and their expensive motorized toys are threatened. Tough luck. Right now the cost of unemployment insurance falls on the employer. It would be much more realistic for the cost to fall on the employee, who could elect to buy the amount of insurance he thought he needed, with some minimum amount required by law. It might just result in a somewhat higher savings rate, and somewhat reduced sales of high-priced toys, since self-insurance is much cheaper than third-party insurance. Like the steel workers before them the auto workers had a wonderful ride. Now it's over, and the rest of us have no responsibility to subsidize the exalted lifestyle of those whose lifetime earnings far exceeded that of most other Americans.

The cost of assembly might be less than 10% of the cost of an automobile, but what about the parts that are bought from outside the company or other divisions? When all is said and done labor is the biggest single cost in the economy. Cost of capital (dividends, interest) is a small fraction of the cash flow of the economy. What about the overpaid medical industry that supplies medical care to the auto workers? All that is factored into the cost of the car. And it all ends up in someones pocket as pay for services rendered.

In order to compete with the rest of the world we need to reduce the costs of all components of society. Even, ultimately the politically well-connected and overpaid segments. You are worth exactly what your replacement, anywhere in the world, is willing to work for. It's nice to see people going to Thailand for medical care, and for mammograms being read in India. As I like to say, Tough Luck.

You are finding out the downside of unemployment insurance. Since it is paid for by the employer and controlled by bureaucrats, it is generally not designed to protect the employee. Like health insurance, everyone wanted someone else to pay for their personal protection. If we each paid for what we believed we needed we would be protected at a level we controlled. The auto workers have a much better unemployment system. The auto company subsidizes the unemployment for one year at the employees full rate of pay. Nice work if you can get it, but most of us can't get it no matter how hard we try. I can't figure out who I hate more, Bush or the unions. They deserve each other.

At 72 I thought that I had given up flying. However, being still healthy and having 1600 hours of experience and an istrument rating, I might just take it up again. For trips up to 1000 miles a light plane that can fly at 150 MPH, not knots (knots are unfamiliar to most people), is at least equal to the airlines. Probably better considering that one can land the light plane at a small airport near his or her real destination. The new crop of ultra-light jets about to hit the air will take away the business traveler who will use them as air taxis. The conditions on airliners have become increasingly appalling. Being jammed in with a bunch of crude idiots, and suffering the phoney security of King Bush's TSA, is enough. Screw them all.