The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

December 3, 2008 Gary, Richmond, VA writes:

With regard to US automakers, I’m concerned that even if they change their ways, the interference of Congress will torpedo their efforts by demanding “green” cars. It is simple marketing, demonstrated by previous failures, that unless you make what the people want, you are going to fail. When oil was near $150 a barrel, hybrid and small cars couldn’t be sold well. Now that oil is below $50, the demand for hybrids has declined dramatically. The reason so many SUV’s were made and sold was that they were what people wanted. If Congress mandates what people don’t want, the auto makers will fail again.

December 5, 2008 Dell in South Carolina writes:

I can’t, of course, know what’s in the minds of the Big 3 CEOs but watching the hearings these past days and weeks, I get the impression that through the years, the UAW has put so many log chains around the necks of these companies, they’ve driven them completely out of any sort of competition with other auto manufacturers. Things like collecting 95% of their pay when a
worker is laid off is completely outrageous to me. Where else and in what other industry would you find THAT!?!

I remember coming up in the end of the hay day of the auto industry (when you could still tell one year from the last because the body style changed at least subtly with each new year’s model) and people were already saying then that the industry was going to price themselves out of their jobs due to the ridiculously high wages and manufacturing costs - but they had no competition then. As soon as the European and Asian cars began to show up on the market, I would have thought our auto makers would see that “the times, they were a-changin’”. Apparently not, though, as we now see.

I hear them saying that the plants that have sprung up in the South aren’t laboring over the operational overhead that Detroit has and that’s not JUST lower entry wages - it’s also less UAW intrusion into the day to day manufacturing process, in my opinion.

I believe unions do a great deal of good most of the time as evidenced by the textile industry in my state but it would seem that the UAW has gone berserk with their demands and now there’s no place to go but down. I remember the old jokes about the auto worker who asked his co-worker to hand him a wrench a couple of feet away; the co-worker says, “Nope, can’t do it. The union says that’s not my job.” They got sillier as time went by but it was always an ugly, descriptive way of putting down the unions. And now we see why, I think.

Yes, the CEOs should work for a dollar a year - not just one year - until the companies are stable and competitive again; but I also believe someone should kick some serious butt in the UAW! Get safe, decent working conditions, reasonable salaries and pension plans - and then get the hell out of the way of these workers doing their jobs - today AND tomorrow!

Unhappily, as Detroit goes, so goes the rest of the economy because so many other people are irrevocably tied into the health and productivity of the auto industry. We’ve already lost so many jobs that it would be a shame to see this part of our American heritage go the way of the Tucker and the Edsel, not for the same reasons, of course, but gone nonetheless.

And, no, I’m not advocating nationalizing or even subsidizing ANY company but if we have to do that to save a whole industry, then do it as a loan and get on with it. I believe bailing out Wall Street has even less merit than this particular situation but we got THAT jammed down our throats without any say in the matter so why not this?

I WILL say that there had better be some extreme oversight and regulatory supervision going on or those people (such as the management of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and people like these inept company heads) need to go to prison! After all, they finally got O.J.! LOL

December 12, 2008 Ada Texas writes:

I know this is not on any subject listed, but I need to know how you feel about this.

Does this sceem fare to any of you?
a Father has to pay health, dental insurance, and support for his two children. Plus all there wants and needs. The IRS will not let him hold the children off his taxes. The EX-wife has a good job, remarried, and she and her new husband can hold the two children off there income tax.
Is this fair to the Father? The Father is responcible for everything!, but can’t hold his children off his income taxes. What can we do to change this. It is time the men and women are treated equal. Don’t you think?

December 12, 2008 John J Phillips - Kansas writes:

Being on that side of the fences for 16 yeears was tough. Some how the Lord provided. I beleive that this part of the system needs to be revamped. It is unfair that the father pay out so much, on the other hand as men we must do our part in the faimly circle, not after the fact of divorce but before. This is very demanding and takes prayer and patients. America has to many opinions and there is only one that counts, Gods. Seek the Lord in all matters and speak (pray) his word.