Showering Before or After Work

In this country's surreal financial world there remain areas of clarity. Claiming only the purest of motives, Republicans clearly see distress in the auto industry as an opportunity to crush the UAW and disable unions in general. The party line, as expressed repeatedly by Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina for example, is that Congress is being asked to bail out the union not the car companies. Besides, they would say, doesn't the accumulation of wealth rightly begin at the top of the financial pyramid?

By exaggerating the average pay of employees in American companies dissenters make it appear that domestic pay scales are bloated and unsustainable and ignore the tax advantages provided the Toyotas, Hundais, BMWs, etc. in the southern states where such entities prosper. That is not to say that northern automotive centers aren't saddled with legacy costs and other benefits that restrain profitability.

Obviously unions strive to do their best for their members otherwise they would have no reason to exist. Undoubtedly, however, some current agreements need to be re-tooled. But Republican legislators, who suggest that bankruptcy worked for the airlines and would work for the automobile industry, fail to acknowledge the difference between the two. As one commentator put it, an airline passenger's association with a server is over at the end of a flight, while car owners maintain relationships with dealers and service providers for the life of their vehicle.

But if the wage and benefit structure needs adjustment so does the auto-industry manufacturing ethos. It isn't true that American manufacturers have been making cars no-one wants to buy, quite the contrary. But they haven't been able to make a decent profit because of their current financial obligations and of course the economic downturn that affects all markets. SUVs were a cash cow for a while but gas guzzlers are falling out of favor, and the industry, in failing to develop new technologies and turn the corner into the future, are suffering the consequences of a profound myopia.

Still, losing an industrial giant like our domestic auto industry is a daunting prospect, both in terms of job loss and national pride. "In other parts of the world, governments routinely help their domestic auto industries with tax breaks, reimbursement for research and development, worker training ... and - -perhaps most significantly- -state-sponsored health care." (Wardsautoworld.com. 10/1/08, Tom Murphy) Recently Sweden acted to bolster its Volvo product in the face of the financially-challenged global markets.

A distinction is often made between those who "shower before going to work" and those "who shower after work", the after-work crowd being held in somewhat lower esteem. Union workers and auto-related jobs seem to be thought of as non-essential elements of our economy while Wall Street execs who received no-strings funds are allowed to cling to bonuses and retirement packages as if those extra millions were needed to put food on their tables. Excessive executive pay is an outrageous affront to ordinary Americans.

In just one egregious example Carly Fiorina received a $21-million golden parachute when she was fired as Hewlett-Packard's CEO. Yet she served as an economic advisor to John McCain during his campaign and appeared on Meet the Press, Sunday, presumably as an expert on financial matters. Her focus on the lack of available credit hardly tells the whole story when it comes to job creation. And her personal gain as thousands of Hewlett-Packard employees lost their jobs is a gut-wrenching reminder of how skewed our financial structure has become.

What Conservatives refer to as "market forces" others see as a betrayal of the American dream - - a rampant form of capitalism that ignores the plight of the less fortunate and neglects the underpinnings not only of our democratic principles but, ultimately, our economic well-being. Curiously Republicans continue to talk of tax cuts and downsizing domestic programs while billions are lost in Iraq in ill-conceived domestic spending there. Meanwhile here at home ‘trickle-down' has slowed to an imperceptible drip.

But what if golden-parachute retirees and recipients of those enormous salaries gave a little something back to the larger community - - created a pool of money that might be used for national emergencies or a national health care plan. A few million from a few hundred such fat cats, and wow, we'd be talking about real money. How much wealth and how many houses does any individual really need after all?