Bail Out

I'll probably get lambasted for this, and I know ol' rrd won't agree, but finally last night the "good" senator Jim Dement (?) Rep from South Carolina finally came out and said what I have'nt heard all along, that the Unions have been behind the gra>>>

What's the problem with that. Looking at your other thread, you didn't mind helping by buying what looks like a new truck. Or is that a car? :laugh:>>>

Cars and trucks are like electronics. If they sit on the dealer's lots for a year or 2 without selling, prices will drop drastically.

Though I have to admit, I bought a new truck myself about a year ago. A '95 F-150 which is easier on gas than my F-25>>>

This bail out crap is criminal. As much as it would hurt a lot of people these companies should be left to there own fate. They dug the hole, not us. We're just sending good money after bad and digging a hole of our own that this country will not get out>>>

I think the problem with the Big Three is more complex than just the unions. According to the New York Times, union jobs at the Big Three plants pay a dollar or two more an hour - about $26 an hour compared with $24 or $25 an hour for the nonunion jobs a>>>

Yep! Let them stew in their own juice.>>>

I read somewhere that the auto industry has to take care of 450,000 retirees health and welfare. That is quite a number, the cost for which has been borne by the consumer in the past. Should a bail out be considered, not one nickel should be forthcoming f>>>

elcid - Are you suggesting that the pension plans are not already funded? I thought that pensions were funded as payroll is accrued.>>>

HOP, On Talk Of The Nation (NPR) with Neil Conan yesterday they said that the "cost" to the Ford Motor Company of the average worker was $70 an hour. By the same token I heard somewhere else that only 10% of the cost of the average vehicle goes in la>>>

It was even more criminal, even traitorous, to bail out the Wall Street and bank crooks imo. I don't see how the country won't collapse. As for the automakers, it's not even a matter of if, but how and when they will get their loans.

Is this the same>>>

I have watched what the unions did to the steel mills around here. Where there used to be 4 mills within a 7 mile radius, there is now 1 that is working with a ghost staff. Small business found it nearly impossible to find people to work. Everyone want>>>

House of Pain: Without being privy to their internal accounting, I am fairly certain that this is the case. Given the collapse of the stock market, their pension fund probably lost upwards of 50% and more, which will somehow have to be funded thru increas>>>

elcid - I don't disagree. I was kind of being sarcastic. Of course the Legacy cost are a factor in the current financial predicament; but only a small one. I am only 42 years old and I've been hearing about the failing US auto industry since the earl>>>

If you've been following the auto industry's crisis, then you've probably read or heard a lot about overpaid American autoworkers--in particular, the fact that the average hourly employee of the Big Three makes $70 per hour.

That's an awful lot of m>>>

Except ... notice something weird about this calculation? It's not as if each active worker is getting health benefits and pensions worth $42 per hour. That would come to nearly twice his or her wages. (Talk about gold-plated coverage!) Instead, each act>>>

RandyB1986 - Did they? To date I don't believe they have a fully funded pension program. Sooner or later, we all have to pay the piper. It seems to me that the automakers pension plan is funded the same way the US government is funding Social Security>>>