Union, Obama To Blame in Difficult Economic Times

The Auto industry needs to fail. I know, I know, that contradicts the theory of American industry rebounding and the trickle down effect of lost jobs may be devastating. But, its time to purge that business model and start over. What model you ask? "The one that has made the American worker too good to work," I reply.

There was a time when there were more people than there were jobs. A time when a worker was asked to work long hours, under harsh conditions for little reward. A time when newly unionized labor allowed workers to choke the ability of a company to have ample employees to fill their needs unless certain conditions were met. This caused companies to improve work conditions, offer more competitive pay scales as well as long term security for those employees after they spent a lifetime working to make a company profitable and could no longer do so.

Today, those same Unions are on the brink of being the sole reason the employees who make up their memberships are out of a job. Today, a union worker has a minimum wage, based upon their job duties, that is higher than the Federal Government's minimum wage, far higher. It's for skilled labor you say... Well, yes it is, but its also for "specialist" skilled labor, meaning a union worker is hired to do "a" job and cannot be asked to do anything outside the parameters of that job, and cannot be denied pay if the company does not have that job active on a given day the employee is at work. (i.e. the production line is down.)

Today, the union worker is guaranteed health insurance benefits far greater than that of the rest of American workers. Today, the union employee is allowed leave and sick days at a rate much higher than that of the rest of American workers. Today, that union worker is guaranteed retirement benefits far greater than the rest of American workers. In fact, GM alone, has to produce an additional 900,000 vehicles a year in order to pay retirement benefits to its retired employees.

Now, I am all for safe work places, equal opportunity, employee benefits and the ability for an employee to make a respectable living for their skill level. But, a person or company doesn't take on the risk of starting a business with a model in place that allows the employees to make in excess of what the company can earn to pay it. If the company cannot be profitable, there are no jobs. The more money a company can make, the more it can pay and the more jobs it can offer. Pretty basic stuff, really.

Its Joe the Plumber all over. Obama wanted Joe to pay more taxes if he bought the plumbing company, hired employees and made more money than he did as an employee. The reasoning behind Obama's plan is it would allow more of the workers to live close to the life of the business owners. The American dream per se. The contradiction to that, and McCain's point, was that if Joe couldn't make sense out of owning the business to earn money that in turn wouldn't be paid out in taxes, why buy the business (or why have the business in the United States). In turn, Joe won't create any jobs as a result.

Simple fact of the matter is, those union workers are too good to work at this point. They wouldn't show up to their jobs today if it was the only way to have food on their table that night without certain expectations. Pick the plant up and drop it in Mexico, and you would have non-union employees clamoring over those same jobs at a portion of the pay and benefits. The company could turn a profit and offer a more competitively priced car, sell more, need more employees, etc.

The difference between Obama and McCain was "who gets to make the money." And all of you employees out there who are pissed that I'm not sticking up for your ability to earn more money ask yourselves if you would be willing to take $1 million dollars of your own money and start a business to provide jobs for the next ten years at which point you would no longer have the million dollars but your employees do, would you do it out kindness?

The only way that the American who is too good to work is going to get what they want, is if the companies themselves can be profitable inside the borders of the United States. The more money a company can make the more jobs it can create, the more jobs it can create the more the ratio of job-to-employee will change, the more that ratio changes, the more money the employee can make because the employee need will be in high demand. Make it hard for a company to turn a profit due to taxes and forced union labor agreements, the fewer companies there are inside the borders of the United States and the fewer jobs there are.

If Obama wants change, he better look in the mirror first. Oh, wait, the unions bank rolled his campaign, no wonder we are keeping the Auto industry afloat, for the union workers who put them in this mess to begin with.