Posted by
FeargalX on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 9:35:19 PM
The U.S. Auto Industry
Many conservatives are using the problems faced by the auto industry as an attempt to trash unions. They forget that unions have lost most of their power over the past 30 years and our manufacturing base especially is now tiny compared to what it once was.
Here is a simple explanation for why the U.S. auto industry has fallen apart.
Our health care costs have increased at a level much higher than inflation.
America counts on employers to provide health care unlike most other industrial countries which rely mostly on the government.
30 years ago, it was not unreasonable for either the unions or the companies to enter into the agreements that they did. Nobody could specifically know that health care costs would rise at a level much higher than inflation. Nobody would specifically know that our auto companies would all be in peril in 2008.
30 years ago it may have been reasonable to think it would even be possible to increase employees of American owned companies – so the per employee health care cost would not have necessarily have been so high.
Today, there are way more retirees than current U.S. owned auto workers. So, the companies have an incredible burden.
To me, it is incredible that conservatives will say how terrible that universal health care is – and believe that employers should continue to provide health care rather than the government – but when it has consequence they blame the employees. Would conservatives rather that these workers had government health care?
It is largely the fault of the republicans that we have such high health care costs.
If these companies did not have to worry about the health care costs of the retired workers, they would be in decent shape.
Conservatives are pretty stupid to claim that American auto workers earn way more than Japanese and German auto workers – they actually do not. It is totally false to claim they do. But, the health care burdens on these companies are enormous. Our health care issues are unique to the industrial world – we do not see the same issues in Germany or Japan. So, whose fault is that? Conservatives claim it is the unions? – incredibly stupid.