Quote:
Originally Posted by TXBatman
If you think the average UAW worker is "living paycheck to paycheck" you might want to look at the numbers again. Their average pay is $71/hr. If you multiply that by 40 hrs and 50 weeks per year, that is $142,000 per year. If you have to "live paycheck to paycheck" making $140,000/yr, you are doing something wrong.
Look, the management is obviously bad...they need to go. I also agree that publically owned companies should have limits on the ratio of CEO pay to employee pay. However, the collapse of the big 3 is a clear case of unions that were given too much power in the 70s and 80s taking too much from the automakers and refusing to accept a fair wage in the face of stiff foreign competition. Why did the UAW refuse to settle for fair wages? Because they had the power to demand more. They had the power and they used to to bring the big 3 to their knees over and over, while demanding higher and high wages. Sure, manage of the big 3 is bad...but management of the UAW is as bad or worse. Do you think the UAW president flies economy when he goes to DC? I bet you anything he flies in a private jet too.
Right now, because of the UAW contracts, the big 3 lose about $1000 on every single car they sell. Why on God's green earth should we agree to spend $25 billion to bailout a group of companies whose current business model is to sell their products for less than it costs to make them?!? The only way we should agree to give Detroit a dime is if the unions agree to lower their wages to a level that allows the automakers to have a chance to turn a profit. Otherwise we are just pouring money down a black hole.
My personal favorite for how to do the bailout is to take $700 billion...and give it back to the people. A large portion of us will use it to pay off credit cards, pay off mortgages, and to pay off car loans. With all of those debts off of their books where they don't have to hold reserves for them anymore, the banks and financial companies will have plenty of money to start lending again...credit crisis over!
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My DH worked for GM all his life and nobody in the UAW made $71/hr. Anyone who believes that...well, I've got some oceanfront property in Arkansas I wanna sell you. That figure includes
all benefits added to the hourly rate (life insurance, medical, dental, disability, etc.). At the time of his death he was making roughly $21/hr (this was 8 years ago). So yes, we did live "paycheck to paycheck" because we had two boys to raise plus all the expenses of a home. He would have loved to make $140,000 a year but that just wasn't happening....at least not at GM.
Why not have the execs and CEO's forgo that multi-million dollar bonus if the company isn't making any money? Seems only fair to me.
I do like your idea for the bailout money, though. I think I should get about $900,000.....yeah, that'd pay off all my debt, buy me a house and small car, allow me to save some for my old age care and be able to eat meat more than 3 X a week!!!
