Interesting how the Republican Senators from the Honda and BMW states think that by LOWERING someone's wages they can help our economy "recover." But that's the old "Grapes of Wrath" modus operandi, isn't it? When enough folks are out of work, the ownership class can keep lowering wages until people are fighing each other to work for food. And by God, the rich people and the "investing class" would love to do just that, again.

When was the last time members of the House and Senate took a wage and benefits cut?

At some point, Democrats in Congress are going to have to confront Republicans and make them actually filibuster. Or, maybe better yet, completely do away with this situation where 60 votes are now needed to pass any kind of controversial legislation.

Class War

"There’s class warfare, all right," Mr. Buffett said, "but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html

Taxing the super rich is a class war. Meddling in middle class contractual wage agreements is not a class war.

The Republicans continue to miss the boat on how to "re-define themselves". They continue with the same tired classicism rhetoric that got us into this mess.

Yep all of those GM pensioners are responsible for the financial meltdown of this economy. Let's take their money away driving them into poverty. It is unthinkable that retired auto workers would actually want a roof over their head, health care, and food on the table. How incredibly selfish of those old farts. We all know the attract the "best and the brightest" we need to take the money from retirees and give multi-million dollar bonuses to the golden boys of industry to further reek havoc on our system.

Will This Economic Crisis Resurrect Communism?

Not communism. War. As Americans haven't seen it since Lincoln.

Do you know the causes of war? Many are already present. The others will arrive by and by.

I believe the most dangerous man in the world is one who is unemployed. As a kid we heard "Idle hands breed mischief." During the time when our politicians were assembling NAFTA I remember seeing an unemployed older man jump from a bridge in Pittsburgh. That is the ideal situation for the CEO's and politicians who believe our economic under-class work force is of no inconsequential and expendable. We know the U.S. is a leader in road rage and work place violence and shootouts in our schools. The estimated three, or so, millions who will be jobless will not disappear into the night and let us hope they will not resort to violence. So far, our leaders have not assembled a plan to deal with any such outcome. Perhaps we may see something emerge such as communism or fascism which will not solve anything but most revolutions seldom do.

Whatever your job is, if the wage you earn is not sustainable by the company or the industry it's in, then sitting on your fat ass and screaming about how unfair it all is, is besides the point. I'd like to assert that my job is worth a quarter mil a year. I demand that it is. But it's not. And there's not one single company on the planet who will pay me that. Now if through some strange confluence of events I managed to wrangle that concession from my company and low and behold, after a few years they couldn't afford it, the rational response would be to renegotiate that. Because more than zero is a higher number than zero.

For every attempt management makes at breaking the union, the union is playing an equally dangerous game of attempting to extract as much cash as possible out of the company before it goes broke. See no one is really interested in the long run viability, no one. Not the unions OR management. No one.

The UAW has some nice pay and benefits (although not so extremely nice as you might think. The NYT had a good article in Wednesday's business section that breaks down the automaker's labor costs) and one might argue that they are a bit cushy, or not. But leave us never forget that the reason for the union and its protective attitude towards its members is the screw job that management at the automakers were giving the workers (without the benefit of KY jelly) before the union.

Now, IMSHO, it takes a lota damn gall for a fat cat Senator who has the cushiest retirement plan on the planet that, unlike the autoworkers who had to literally fight for everything they've got while all he had to do was vote himself the pension, to criticize the autoworkers.

And the pension plan isn't the only thing that Congress has voted for itself that isn't available to the rest of us schmucks. Nor does it address all the things that Congress has exempted itself from that we all have to comply with. And that is how we create a ruling class.

Fantastic point about healthcare and pension costs substantially adding to Big 3 labor costs. I wonder though. If its really true that nationalized healthcare would significantly lower costs (and enhance profitability), they would have supported it decades ago. Frankly i need to know more about the Big 3 position in natonalized healthcare over the years. That would be interesting.

Regarding whether these events are an "attack" on the UAW? ...certainly from some. Not all. Go back to my key point -higher labor costs put US automakers at a competitive disadvantage. If we are to have a auto industry - i think we should - it must be competitive globally. We can't compete with labor costs that are significantly in excess of global competition. If Obama healthcare reform actually enables this, green light go!

The CEO of Ford gets paid $24,000 per hour. This is justified because of the skill" he brings to running the company.

The average auto worker makes $27 per hour.

And Republicans want to crash the economy because of the outrageous salaries paid to. . .

. . . the average worker.

This is why Rove is wrong: The Republicans are not on the road to recovery. They are on their way to obsolescence