Good Morning Gentle Readers,
G. Richard Wagoner, Jr, President of General Motors, arrived in DC in a 36 million dollar Gulstream Four. The flight cost about twenty thousand dollars. His purpose in doing so was to apply for a little corporate welfare from a somewhat reluctant CONgress. Not picking on Dick, the other one point five members of the Detroit Whiners also arrived in corporate jets.
True enough that most big boys enjoy lots of perks and TWC does not care a fig if Ford flies Mr Mulally to Seattle every Friday afternoon. Until Mr Mulally comes looking for my wallet.
That said, it's just bad form to arrive at the welfare office in a Mercedes.
I've heard tell that this isn't a proposed bailout of the auto industry, but instead, is a bailout of the UAW. Turns out, that isn't far off the mark. Here's why Detroit can't compete.....
Let's review:
- Detroit pays the average UAW worker $73.20 an HOUR
- Toyota's average wage is $48.00 an hour
- Average US management wages are $47.57 an hour
Yet the guy in the 36 million dollar Gulfstream Four can't figure out how to stop burning through cash like the federal government.
Economics Professor Mark Perry, who compiled the chart, asks.....
Should U.S. taxpayers really be providing billions of dollars to bail out companies (GM, Ford and Chrysler) that compensate their workers 52.5% more than the market (assuming Toyota wages and benefits are market), 54% more than management and professional workers, 132% more than the average manufacturing wage, and 157% more than the average compensation of all American workers?
Read all about it here.
It is a supreme irony that this GM is the same GM that fifty years ago published a booklet version of Hayek's The Road to Serfdom.
We Report. You Decipher.
As Always,
TWC
Tip of the glass to Carpe Diem via Michael C. Moynihan
Photo Credit (unless otherwise noted): ©TWC, all rights reserved
