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The Big Three debacle didn't happen overnight. They have been losing market share for the past two decades and the basic problem is that they kept giving the UAW what they wanted for years and years. With large numberof retirees, an aging force force, and a large number of workers getting paid while sitting home, they could not withstand the sudden crash in demand. The auto workers are the last big remnant of those who clung to the idea that
bl;ue collar workers of little or no education could get paid as much as white-colar workers
with much more money invested in education. Indeed many of them had only disdain for schooling, especially if they were inheriting a union card from their daddies.
But I can see where you are going with your anti-southern rant. Unions have been unable to organize in the south because southerners don't have the class prejudice, the loathing for the bosses, the lack of pride in work that is indemnic in the automobile factories. Noiw that the Democrats are in power, they are going to get card check, and hoping by bullying and by an appeal to greed, will try to unionize the foreign companies and,of course, the suppliers. The consumer will pay for all this of course. The prices of cars will go up. People with monet won't notice. Here in the DFW area, Corvettes are selling well, but people with poor credit are out of luck. Pretty soon they will be driving expensive junk. If we go the route of England, unemployment among the "Native" working class will stay around 10% and from generation to generatoion they will continue to live on the dole, evermore resentful and addicted to beer and football. The English football fans are now famous for their violence--a sad departure from the conduct of their grandparents as the last vestiges of Victorian evangelicalism are leached out of their souls.
