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I usually don't blog about comments in other blogs, but this comment was absolutely brilliant. Brilliant ideas should be publicized regardless of any personal blogging conventions one might have.
The following comment is in response to a From the Left posting on how Wall St is getting a bailout, but auto workers are getting the shaft.
Rachel
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the remedy for the Big Three Automakers is simple. Fire the entire executive board of all three automakers and let the unions run the companies. The unions have long advocated the production of smaller, more fuel efficient cars but the executives said no.
This is just the kind of rational and creative thinking that can get us out of our economic crises. I'm sure rightists would throw fits over the very idea, because they have been brainwashed into a hysterical hatred of unions. But, the rest of us should take this idea very seriously.
It's remarkable, in any reasonable sphere if leadership has demonstrably failed, to leave then in place and give them more funding would be seen as madness. But that has happened system wide throughout the bailout. Unions or a nationalised stakeholder & union council running it can't do any worse! And certainly retaining the executive class is simply postponing greater problems. But...it won't happen, if workers are seen to be running something well the elites will panic and scream 'Marxism' fearing the people might get ideas that the great & the good aren't that great or good. But it shouldn't be taken as any great ideological step just a practical move to save a needed industry, that it isn't even seriously considered tells you who the real ideological corporatist fundamentalists are. The market will not give us renewable powered electric cars until it is too late, as with the financial sector de-regulation just means greed overwhelms all other considerations and there is no planet B once we're done with this one.
That's an excellent suggestion. I think I have read elsewhere something along these lines, but they said "workers" instead of Unions. Perhaps that's playing politics, but...
At anyrate, great idea.
Regards
Tengrain
O/T, Happy Thanksgiving to you, dear libhom
Rachel is smart, huh?
When I read this I was like, yes! I have really smart and insightful people posting.
It just makes makes so much sense, and why doesn't the Union take over the running the Big Three? Why hasn't anyone in the executive level said it, too?
BTW, I hate comment moderation. I understand why you turned it on but I hate it.
A brilliant idea. Why pay executives millions in bonuses for failure to have the foresight to understand market demands, as Chrysler has done.If they were strip away all the perks these executives get (private jets, stock options, and all the many other things I have seen from inside the belly of the beast) they would probably have enough to save the companies, but no-one wants to work for less the $1 million a year.
I don't know about that. Have you ever seen what union leaders drive? Not a lot of practicing what they preach from what I see. Most union leaders I know drive around in top of the line Lincolns and Caddy's. Sometimes even Navigators and Escalades
Also, if you wonder how well they would balance the GM books, you should get a look see at how they run their own union's finances. Most are pretty much in the hole.
I was once the President of a union. Trust me, you don't want these people running your company.
RickB: All that logical thinking. Stop it! You are a heretic.
Tengrain: Yeah, it's good not to get hung up on the wording.
JavV: Thanks, hope yours was good.
Christopher: I know, but moderation seems to be necessary for a while.
Kevin: Great point about private jets and other perks.
Joe Brock: I'll compromise. I won't support you running a car maker. More seriously, there isn't a union in the country that is as bad with finances as the major banks, investment banks, and automakers.