By now, many words have been typed about the Big Three Bailout, also known as the “screw the UAW plan” or alternatively, the “Help Cerberus Make it’s Numbers plan“. Seriously, if a “competitive wage” meant “we’re going to give you the same pay they get in the Toyota plant”, nobody would have an issue with it, but it’s clear that what is meant is a more drastic slashing of wages and benefits.
Alas, it looks to me (and many others) like the only “plan” Ford, Chrysler, and GM have for becoming profitable in the future is to “spend less money“: cut wages, cut employment rolls, renegotiate with suppliers, cut expenses in everything but the executive suite. Nothing as innovative as making cars people want to buy and selling them for a reasonable sum of money, nothing like trying to lobby for Medicare For All and instantly — using their own numbers — cut $1500 from the price of making a car.
I think it says a lot that Ford is just saying “No, thanks. We don’t need money on those terms.”
In an interesting wrinkle, Honda is threatening to pull out of Japan! The CEO is frustrated with a government that isn’t doing anything to help exporters. The way things are still headed, I bet they can buy some nice, idle car plants near Detroit.
The auto industry is not the only American manufacturing interest, merely one of the biggest. Manufacturing as a whole in this nation is “tanking hard.” Some might say that is because we can’t compete globally. And when they do, they imply that either wages are too high or taxes and other regulations are too onerous. However, the bottom line is that without manufacturing, we won’t have the basis for a sound economy. We can’t run a country on selling one another lattes and cheap goods from overseas. The “service economy” is a giant pyramid scheme built on the idea that, well, we don’t have to build anything. The truth is that if we can’t create anything of value, all our money will eventually go the the countries that can.
Maybe we can start by selling more efficient busses to the world.
In closing: How does electronic voting compare to, say, a Vegas slot machine?; Drillers have close encounter with molten magma, find novel way for scientists to study volcanism; and sadly, Christmas tree thefts are on the rise. I still personally don’t get the charm of having a “real” Christmas tree sitting in your home. It’s messy, it requires care, it’s flamable, some people are allergic to them, and then you have to figure out how to get rid of the thing after Christmas. I’d rather plant one outside! Oh, and yes, I have planted multiple trees.
Happy Solstice. It’s gonna be a long night.
Carlos Ghosn made a similar announcement regarding Nissan, saying Nissan would have to offshore more production if the yen stayed strong. I was wondering if he meant “offshore” as in Vietnam, China and India, or “offshore” as in the U.S. I’m just trying to figure out if a strong yen will ultimately hurt operations at their U.S. plants. Short term, the strong yen seems to be hurting operations, but long term, who knows?
Well, maybe GM can sell Nissan a nice plant someplace!