- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Critics of the bailout claim that UAW members make $70 plus an hour but how they come up with that figure is truly an example of "fuzzy" math at its best. The hourly pay of UAW members is about the same as non-union workers in the South. The biggest difference are the health care costs. In Europe and in Asia there is universal health care coverage that is guaranteed by the people through their government unlike in the United States where health care is the responsibility of business and workers. Not only does this create an unequal playing field for American automakers, you also have the unique situation where foreign automakers see the United States as a "third world" country where they can manufacture cars more economically than they can in their own countries. Thus it can be argued that senators from Southern states are aiding in the colonization of the United States by foreign powers. What must Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley and others who promoted American imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th century must be thinking?
