I’ve been following that sad state of affairs with great interest. Why? Because it’s the ultimate fate of our country due to the debt we have-but that’s neither here nor there. What bothered me were statements made on the radio today.

This afternoon I had nothing to do so I was on my way home and for the first time in a while, I turned the radio on. A nationally syndicated blow hard was on and he spoke about the Detroit deal. The reasons for the bankruptcy in his mind were ‘the unions’ and ‘liberalism.’ While I do think making people dependent on the system, and then taking money from others to pay to the dependent ones, is morally wrong, that’s not the only reason for the destruction of Mo-town.

Nor were the unions totally to blame either. Big Management wants to make sure they get every damn dime they can and that’s how it is. And if we didn’t have unions, then we’d all be slaves to the company. The 40 hr work week, vacations, labor laws and benefits all came about in the USA due to the unions, so they’ve done many things to help out the worker.

With that said, here’s the rub. Both parties helped cripple the auto industry. Do you really think it costs 50k to build a 4×4 F-150? Seriously, that’s so overpriced it isn’t funny. Why? Because the company is going to make sure management (specifically the upper echelon) gets their outrageous pay and then uses the ‘good old boy’ network to make sure their buddies do too. All these CEO’s are on other company’s Board of Directors so it becomes ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.’ “You give me thirty million here and I’ll vote to give it to you at your company.” What a fucking racket. However, do Union workers need $40 per hour to build cars? No, but despite all that is said on the right, the figures that the CEO’s, and the other members of upper management, are getting is causing far more harm than the unions. So, look at the figures of their pay and think about whenever they say the ‘unions are killing us on labor cost.’ I’ll bet you 20 bucks they’re mad because it’d cut into their big ass paychecks, which is why they’re angry.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/ceo-pay-ratios/

Now look at those figures and tell me it’s the unions fault! I’m sorry, talk radio, but the 1%, both in business and politics/government, are getting richer off our backs and we’re not seeing a damn dime of it really. Looks like it’s time for a union renaissance.