- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
When the minimum wage was stagnant for decades and the Gringrich Republicans stopped health care reform for the nation, unions continued to fight for a living wage and appropriate benefits for working people. It's not that auto workers are OVER paid today; it's that the rest of working people are UNDER paid!
That said, I'm still ambivalent about the proposed bailout, even if TARP funds are used. I look at it this way: If we have $15 billion (or $25 or $35 billion) to inject into the economy to protect real people's jobs and businesses, what is the best way to spend it? Maybe it shouldn't be spent saving the Big 3, given their abismal track record. A few billion (billion! I still can't believe we're talking about billions) to support and develop 21st century industries, another few billion for education and training for workers for these new industries, and another few billion for health care would, it stands to reasons, go a long way toward stabilizing the economy and helping real people. We have never spent billions on any of these things. What would happen if we did?
