In one spread in today’s Dayton Daily News we see three articles:
GM retirees plan protests [1]– where IUE/CWA members are wondering what will happen to their health care benefits from GM.
GM’s Wagoneer gets nice pension: [2] where the man who took the mighty automaker on its final drive into the ground, gets to retire with a benefit package worth $10 million (or $20 mil if you read USA Today) – plus an annual pension of $74,030 for the rest of his life/
House unveils health plan [3]– where we finally get “universal health care” by taxing the “rich.”
When you throw in the fact that almost 62% of personal bankruptcies stem from catastrophic illness [4], and after years of listening to GM complain that $1,500 had to be added to every vehicle because of health care costs- all of a sudden, it should make sense: our health care system isn’t much of a health care system. It has made the health insurance industry rich- a group that adds absolutely nothing to the provision of health care- and in fact, acts to ration it and restrict it.
The follow-up is the wealthy have been insulated from this major issue, until now, when the bailing wire and twine that have held this economy together have fallen apart, and the wealthy still think it’s not their problem. Of course it’s not their problem- the man who killed GM, and tens of thousands of direct jobs, and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs, is riding off into the sunset with health care, a fat paycheck and no worries, while the people who made the vehicles he desired, end up screwed.
How can this happen? Why isn’t Rick Wagoner headed to prison? Along with his board of directors? How can such a failure, be allowed to not suffer the same fate as those who also put in their time- but held up their part of the deal?
It’s time to start asking the members of Congress why? We’ve invested enough in GM, and gotten nothing back- other than a bankrupt mirage of what was once a mighty pillar of our economy.
If Congress isn’t going to hand out justice to these criminals, maybe they should join them in prison as well. How can we fund the bailout of GM, yet, let this man walk scot free?
I hope you see this issue clearly now.
I believe Bill Maher said it best “the United States government is a wholly owned subsidiary of Corporate America”.
I listened to a story on NPR the other day with a radio talk show host from Sacramento CA trying to blame all of CA’s problems on the Unions. He asked why would people line up for government jobs for Pensions instead of private jobs for Profit? Uh, maybe because the profits are usually go to the shareholders & CEOs at the expense of the workers who helped to generate them, and Pensions are meant to be a reward for your service?
Unions are a joke. They have caused most of the problems in the Auto Industry.
Gene the auto companies caused a lot of their own problem. Goofy balance sheets that did not show the accrued retirement obligations until they were forced to add it in the 1990’s is probably the biggest single issue that forced them to make poor decisions just to appease sharholder equity. GM specifically cut corners using essentially the same car with different chrome packages for Chevy, Buick, Pontiac and Cadillacs costing them big market share. There is plenty of blame to go around.