Tiresome

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



Tiresome

by Jonathan Tasini
Monday 17 of May, 2010


Some day, one would hope, journalists would stop accepting the usual erroneous assumptions. One of the biggest has to do with the unionized auto industry. Today, The Wall Street Journal has a piece that bemoans the lack of increase in workers hired at General Motors at a much lower wage, per recent concessions agreed to by the UAW. And we get this:

"That's probably one of the reasons the UAW agreed to (the lower wages). They knew right off the bat there wouldn't be a lot of leeway for the companies to hire new workers," said David Whiston, an auto analyst at Morningstar Inc. "There will always be this fundamental difference—that the Detroit companies have union shops" and the U.S. plants of foreign makers don't.

Until we see article and analysis that makes clear that the number one issue for the auto industry is not wages (UAW workers could work for free) but health care costs and the lack of a single payer system, we won't get beyond a very superficial understanding of the competitive cost issues.


http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14875

[Lost4words]

1. great post! +1

[zipplewrath]

2. Single payer will come

There's really no way to avoid it. The HCR legislation made it more difficult (which is what it was designed to do when the GOP laid out the basic concept in 1993) but in the end, we'll have no choice.

The multinationals, and other major corporations (including the military contractors) will demand it soon, because they will tire of this fiscal burden that constantly swells at uncontrolled rates. They will want to be able to compete globally with companies that bear this burden as part of the larger social structure, not as a direct cost to their bottom line. And ultimately, as the single largest purchaser of health care, the US government will have no choice because the cost will be crushing them. Krugman outlined this problem just days ago.

And most likely it will be the GOP that brings it to them, much like the medicare presription drug benefit.

And it will be a sad day for the party of Teddy Kennedy.