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• Friday, December 12, 2008 08:53 AM

  First, I hope everybody is taking notes

  because in the coming years, when some GOP knuckle-dragger is running for office to prevent the sodomites from contaminating our precious bodily fluids, everybody better remember what the GOP did with one of its last chances to redeem itself.

  That said, it seems to me that whether wage cuts for UAW guys is appropriate, depends on how much money they're making. 'Cause I don't know.

  I have heard accounts to the effect that they make $80-, $90-, $100,000 a year. I don't know if it's true, or if it's the whole truth. If that is the case, I have to say I am not overly sympathetic. When teachers to to university for 2-4 years and end up making $30k, I don't see why a bunch of high school graduates should make salaries comparable to what a doctor gets. (Especially for making machines that are destroying the global life support system.)

  On the other hand, if most auto workers only make $30- or $50k per year, and the $80k guys are rare, then forcing wage cuts is less of a no-brainer.

  There isn't a working class--there's two. There's the old-style working class, i.e. people who have to work their asses off for lousy wages, like in the good ol' nineteenth century; and there is the comfortable working class with unions and good working conditions and benefits, who do better than your typical college graduate. Let's not conflate the two.

  —Chernobyl Kid Read Chernobyl Kid's other letters
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