Japans Cash for clunkers

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Pete, you could be talking about a lot of cities. My home town of Baltimore is almost as bad and my birthplace of Detroit is far worse. I don't think it's fair to single out unions, however. There are a thousand other reasons for the plight of our old industrial cities. Most of them fall into two categories. The first is disastrous governmental policies like doing away with import tariffs. The other is corporate greed in neglecting employees and infrastructure by off-shoring everything except their compensation packages.

Oh, and those mansions on Euclid Avenue? They're empty because none of the fat cats would be caught dead living in the city they created. They all live in the 'burbs now.

John

Nothing wrong with the burbs. Least you wont get mugged as much, wait the gooberment took over that job !

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Nothing wrong with the burbs. Least you wont get mugged as much, wait the gooberment took over that job !

LOL! Yeah, they sure did. Grumpy, you made my point. The reason the mansions in the city have either been torn down or turned into tenements, a la Patterson, NJ, is because the suburbs are a more congenial place to live these days.

John

[piece-itpete]

You're talking about NOW. Then, tax the rich, they just left.

And tossing the current batch of rich masters, they'll just be another batch (that probably used the proletariat to take the money from the current bunch).

Pete

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

You're talking about NOW. Then, tax the rich, they just left.

And tossing the current batch of rich masters, they'll just be another batch (that probably used the proletariat to take the money from the current bunch).

Pete

Cities are mostly broke. This is largely due to the industrial and mercantile bases leaving. They've been forced to raise residential property tax to make up the shortfall. It's a bad situation.

John

[ehoove]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Cities are mostly broke. This is largely due to the industrial and mercantile bases leaving. They've been forced to raise residential property tax to make up the shortfall. It's a bad situation.

John

It is a sign of an industrial power decaying, with rising costs forcing them to become less competitive. They had to find cheaper ways to operate, in many cases tax free offers set up to entice them to move.
My gripe with the union is that they spent their lobby money on themsevles and not to improve the lot of the average worker who was making 20% what they were. Their demands drove companies to raise prices which inflicted an even high cost of living on the average worker forcing them to turn to cheaper goods. Can you spell Chinese and Japanese? I'm sorry but my attitude towards the unions and their collusion with upper management in our industrial base is one of disgust. To me this was one of the major cancers to our industrial base. The union leaders and company leaders got rich at the expense of us all. The legacy costs of GM are part of their labor costs, and the architects of this disaster are long gone, and enjoyed a wonderful life, I personally hope their after life is a bit less comfortable.
Regards,
Jim

[HatchetJack]

The unions were bad for the country and one of the reasons most of the
big companies sailed. Perfect example of why workers should not be able to
dictate their own pay and retirement plans regardless of performance.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by HatchetJack

The unions were bad for the country and one of the reasons most of the
big companies sailed. Perfect example of why workers should not be able to
dictate their own pay and retirement plans regardless of performance.

Jack, they don't dictate their compensation. They negotiate it through collective bargaining with management.

John

[noonereal]

OMG, that boarders on insane.
(Can I say that?)

You want to explain this?

I must have worked in the wrong places.
Everytime I made a demand I was ignored.

[piece-itpete]

Originally Posted by ehoove

It is a sign of an industrial power decaying, with rising costs forcing them to become less competitive. They had to find cheaper ways to operate, in many cases tax free offers set up to entice them to move.
My gripe with the union is that they spent their lobby money on themsevles and not to improve the lot of the average worker who was making 20% what they were. Their demands drove companies to raise prices which inflicted an even high cost of living on the average worker forcing them to turn to cheaper goods. Can you spell Chinese and Japanese? I'm sorry but my attitude towards the unions and their collusion with upper management in our industrial base is one of disgust. To me this was one of the major cancers to our industrial base. The union leaders and company leaders got rich at the expense of us all. The legacy costs of GM are part of their labor costs, and the architects of this disaster are long gone, and enjoyed a wonderful life, I personally hope their after life is a bit less comfortable.
Regards,
Jim

We are in very close agreement, except I don't mind if their afterlife is OK

Pete

[merrylander]

There was a time when the UAW under Reuther did a great many good things, guess the change came about just like many other changes in our societry as we gradually moved to the Jack System.