We are about to be affected by these possible job cuts. My wife may soon have to choose gambling between accepting a buyout, or surviving the merger, should that occur. While this is not the first time we have had to sweat out a possible bad outcome at Chrysler, it is also not the first time I have been angry about how we as a people have allowed ourselves to become victims of our shortsighted greed.
Once when I asked for a raise, my employer looked at me and returned with: "what additional work will you do for the raise?" What additional work have union workers done to give extra value to the shareholders of Chrysler for those raises, and super benefits. So, Americans in the auto industry seem to have priced themselves out of work. The folks at Toyota and Honda have learned to make a quality car without paying exhorbitant wages. Why couldn't US autoworkers make a quality car WITH high wages? Because they hide behind their union rules and regulations. Well, no more job bank for GM employees. No more high wages for pushing a broom. All of America will have to learn to survive on less earnings. Walmart and big box customers have helped to put China and India on the map. Corporate America has dodged US tax costs and union employee costs by going overseas. Who can we complain to? We did not learn when the clothing industry started to crumble. Will we learn from this debacle. I doubt it. We are still, as a people, in denial...that the USA will always be ok, and return to it's former glory. Not ever again...becaue we have not learned to be loyal to our own needs, and to sacrifice for the better of our fello countrymen. The ME generation blew it.
