Which One Is the American Car?

Let's talk about General Motors. The same points could be made about the other two biggies as well, I think.

Yesterday morning I heard a news story on the radio about how GM is going to be importing some cars from China, in addition to Mexico. And, no doubt, from other places where they do business. So, we the taxpayers are giving billions of dollars to GM in order to keep the company afloat.

And what does the company do? It gives jobs to Chinese workers. Not to pick on the Chinese--GM started exporting jobs way back in the '80s in order to suck up more profit to the upper echelons of the wealthy management and shareholders.

It's nothing new that they've been screwing over American working men and women for many years. "We have to do it to compete," they say.

Really?

After hearing about GM and China, I heard another news story later the same day. Volkswagen is going to build a new automobile factory in Tennessee. It will crank out mid-size sedans. VW is a bit late in hiring American workers. Toyota builds Camrys in Kentucky, Nissan builds trucks in Tennessee, Honda builds Accords in Ohio. And there are probably some other models made at those and other "foreign" factories.

So here's my question: If the bailout is supposed to create jobs...wouldn't our taxpayer money be better spent if we gave the money to Toyota, Honda, Nissan or Volkswagen? Not that I'm advocating giving away any more money, but you get the point.

All this money which was supposed to be for economic recovery is going to the wealthy. Saving General Motors when they lay off thousands of American workers in order to provide jobs for thousands of Chinese workers is doing just the opposite.

I fear that Obama is becoming a Republican. The New Deal created jobs for working men and women. It did not give money to the überwealthy corporations. Of course, Bush started the multibillion giveaway to the bankers, but Obama is continuing it.

Why not nationalize GM and Chrysler and convert their factories into building smaller, more rational vehicles? Fire everyone who makes over $200,000 and start over with designers, engineers and management. No executive should be allowed to make over $500,000, with no loopholes for bonuses. Bonuses would be paid throughout the company to all employees when profits are made, with everybody getting the same percentage of his salary as a bonus...only if earnings warrant a bonus. Tax the hell out of imports, whether they come from American companies or others. If a company like VW builds a factory in the U.S., give 'em the same tax breaks as American companies get, ie., no import taxes on their products. In other words, entice companies to hire American and build American.

Finally, here's the overriding question about this whole issue: How come Toyota, Nissan, Honda and now Volkswagen can build quality cars in America with American workers AND MAKE MONEY and General Motors and Chrysler and Ford can't? Hell, they can't even make money buying cheap Chinese labor. The Toyota Camry is one of the best cars built anywhere. It's great looking and even greater in performance and reliability. So is the Honda Accord, so is the Nissan pickup. These vehicles are BUILT BY AMERICAN WORKERS. IN AMERICAN FACTORIES. ON AMERICAN SOIL.

If American owned car companies can't do that, screw 'em. Let 'em fail and let the Japanese and Germans and eventually even the Italians expand in the U.S. and build more factories and hire more American factory workers. If the companies fail but the workers get jobs with other companies, what's the problem? Too many rich people out of work? Gimme a break.

Republicans, of course, like to blame the unions. Even though the labor is only a small percentage of the cost of a vehicle. It's not the unions. It's management. If you have good management, you don't need unions. Unions came about because of bad management. In the foreign owned American factories the workers make high wages and are treated decently. I don't think most are unionized, maybe some are. Most probably came from poorly managed American owned auto factories.

The problem is not the cost of labor in this country. If that were the problem...why is Volkswagen building a new factory here? Why are the Japanese factories turning out he best cars on the road?