Friday, October 31, 2008

Beshear gets in bailout groove

Didn't see a press release from Gov. Steve Beshear touting the bailout request he sent to Washington D.C. for Detroit automakers who have spent decades wooing politicians while Toyota stuck to building quality cars.

The market always wins these battles and the market says out-of-control labor unions add too much to the cost of UAW-dominated auto manufacturers' products. Sure have created an interesting precedent for adding taxpayers to the losing side once again.

No wonder he is asking for more of your money.

Kentucky would do better to skip the bailout begging and lower taxes on businesses across-the-board. That way, when businesses fail there will be more opportunities for displaced workers to keep working.

3 comments:

Hempy said...

Yes, the market could win the battle, but the problem is not "out-of-control labor unions." Unions are the workers voice is getting a fair share of a company's profits. Labor creates wealth.

Laborers should be paid enough to buy the products they manufacture. That was Henry Ford's argument.

Lowering taxes across the board is not the solution especially when there's no proportional tax system in place.

If there are no jobs available, where would displaced workers find work? And would they find comparable paying jobs? Highly unlikely.

Government could better help auto manufacturers were hemp legalized. Cars can be made from hemp. Henry Ford made a hemp mobile in the 1940s.

Toyota has been running an ad about building a car from the ground up. The best source of material for that car would be hemp. At the end of its useful life, it would leave no adverse environmental footprint.

Anonymous said...

Laborers being paid enough to buy the product they manufacture is such a ridiculous argument.

What about manufacturers of Boeing 747s? Should they make millions each? Or makers of clock radios? $5 a good yearly salary for them?

Detroit is in trouble from years of bad quality product, too many brand names, and going big with SUVs and trucks when the oil price and green movement writing was on the wall.

The unions and past pension agreements are going to make it near impossible to change their fortunes and there needs to be some consolidation, not bailouts of bad decisions, penalizing the other car companies that made good decisions.

Anonymous said...

International Harvester failed under the huge weight of the unions and that was years ago under better circumstances. The country did not fold. The state did not fold.

Life went on as did the unions and the unions learned NOTHING. The union bosses put their spin on how bad the company was to improve their stance and membership. When will the union members stop to look and learn that the union bosses are continuing to make decisions that will improve the stance of the union and the union bosses and really do not give a single care about the members or their welfare or opinions.

Take a close look at how the union dues are spent. Look at the extravagant expense allowances and salaries of the union bosses. YES, SALARIES, unlike the members who get paid wages by the hour.

Why do you think the push to get an open and clear view as to how one will vote? Intimidation is a good clue. You will vote for the union or else..... after all, the union needs more members to bolster their ranks...which means more bosses and most importantly, more money.