How much?

This morning I was reading an article about the BIG THREE auto makers trying to get some of the bail out coin and came across a an interesting paragraph. The quote was from Congressman Spencer Bachaus of Alabama.

"I'm sure that I'm going to be asked the following question...' Congressman, I work at Honda or I work at Mercedes...I get $40 an hour....why are you going to take my tax dollars and pay it to a company that's paying their employees $75 an hour?"

HOW MUCH AN HOUR?

I imagine the $75 an hour includes all benefits...but then again I have no idea because I've never been involved in a Union contract. In fact the only union people I know personally were in the Major League Baseball union and I don't think that really counts as a union.....except of course to the baseball players.

I suppose everybody already knew that GM, Ford and Chrysler were paying their workers $75 an hour but the real question is how does Mercedes get away with $40 an hour and charge so much more for their cars.

Maybe we are only talking C Class rides.

The problem with not helping the Big Three seems to centered around the issue of how many fringe companies would be shut if one of those went down. Outsourcing is not only done outside the country but also outside the factory.

Apparently our old Big Three have failed to upgrade their main facilities and that just seems silly. I find it hard to believe that modern technology is not in place in Detroit but maybe that would explain the $75 an hour dealio.

Older plants need more hands and more hands means more labor contracts and more labor contracts mean higher wages.

My favorite thing from Detroit is Kid Rock so I admit to knowing very little about the inner workings of the BIG THREE....but it seems like if the country is having contraction on the Real Estate market than perhaps a little contraction in the auto industry labor contracts might be in order.

Can some one making $75 an hour get by on $65 an hour?

Jeez......how come India doesn't have nice cars that sell for $3000? I promise you that nobody in their automobile factories is making $75 an hour. Does India even make cars?

Just wondering?

It's kind of like... can Manny Ramirez get by on $22 million a year instead of $25 million?

Something seems silly when you start looking at the big picture.

Amazing how many corners there are when trying to straighten things out.



Michael Timothy McAlevey