Posted on 08/04/2011 6:45:30 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
This is a question that no one seems to be asking. And so I've asked it. And here, in essence, is what I think is the answer. (The answer, of course, applies to Ford and Chrysler, as well as to General Motors. I've singled out General Motors because it's still the largest of the three and its problems are the most pronounced.)
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
We were “screwed” by GM and refused to ever buy a GM product again. That was 23 years ago. Unfortunately, we are paying for their lousy existence now via our taxes.
The big labor bosses would be working for a living.
My union rant... It never gets old, at least not for me.
I’m distressed by the fact that the narrative currently in vogue, (even among conservatives, and this is horrifying for what it means for the future of the country) seems to run like this,
“Public sector unions are REALLY bad. There are some bad things in private sector unions, too, but they aren’t pure evil like public sector unions. Private sector unions, especially at the turn of the century, were actually pretty good.”
This is pure BS! It is very, very, very scary when, even here on FR, for Pete’s sake, people do not recognize ALL UNIONS AS GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED THEFT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUYING DEMOCRAT VOTES.
I expect ignorance of this fact elsewhere, but here on FR??????????????????????
Here’s how the purely evil, anti-American, communistic, welfare-begging private sector unions work…..
I set up a business, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY (my capital and/or cash money).
I pay for the space, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay the taxes using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I supply the parts and inventory, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay for the insurance, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay the labor, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I recruit, hire, and advertise, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Oftentimes an entire life’s savings (MY PRIVATE PROPERTY) is at stake.
My future, my standing in the community, my credit, and MY PRIVATE PROPERTY are all at stake.
If I fail, I stand a good chance of being economically crippled for life.
One day, on MY PRIVATE PROPERTY that I own and acquired using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, one of my employees, who is only in my presence because of the risk of MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, comes to me and says, “Here’s the story, Bub. From this moment forward I am going to begin organizing your other employees to work AGAINST YOUR PRIVATE INTERESTS and do everything in our power to TAKE BY FORCE AS MUCH OF YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY AS WE CAN GET OUR HANDS ON. We are going to spend a great deal of time and effort ORGANIZING AGAINST YOUR INTERESTS TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO GROW STRONGER AT YOUR EXPENSE, IN ORDER TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. You might as well have your business competitors working here on the shop floor. If you do not agree to our demands, we will go on strike, make your life miserable, harass and threaten and/or MURDER IN COLD BLOOD anybody you may want to hire in our place.”
Now the one and ONLY way that such a thing could EVER take place is for the government to step in and say, “Mr. Employer, if you fire this union man, you are going to jail.”
Plainly and simply, no union could ever exist in a free society. Yes, in a free society, you should be able to form and join a union of any type at any time for any purpose whatsoever. AND YOUR EMPLOYER SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIRE YOUR HAPPY ASS IN A HEARTBEAT FOR DOING SO. FREEDOM IS A TWO WAY STREET.
I find this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Truly. A man strolls onto the PRIVATE PROPERTY of another man and tells him how he will employ his PRIVATE PROPERTY going forward, OR ELSE!, and hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people the world over think that the first man is not only somehow better than sub-human filth, they actually see him as a hero! To me, this is one of the most perverse and mystifying examples of twisted human thinking the world has ever seen. I can’t say it enough; you come onto my PRIVATE PROPERTY, and bargain with me, using the THREAT OF GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED FORCE, about how much of my PRIVATE PROPERTY you will allow me to keep! And this is somehow acceptable?
As I say, even conservatives, (who have escaped the liberal brainwashing that begins when we are still in the womb on guns, race, US history, etc., etc., and do not subscribe to the easy notions that are so readily picked up by the unthinking) seem to fall for this trap. Seem to believe that…
“The work place is filled with mean managers and mean bosses who were/are really mean to kids and women and workers and paid them pennies instead of the legitimate millions that they were REALLY worth, making evil white male capitalists even richer, and they enslaved them and coerced them and made them work real hard and were really, really mean. THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the government stepping in and saving women and children from mean bosses and really mean white capitalist men.”
Needless to say, each and every single word of that narrative is as totally false and ridiculous as the liberal narrative on US history, or bad guns, or evil white men. If you know people who believe that stuff, you cannot help them. Do not waste your breath on them, do not do their research for them; have them read Sowell or Williams or von Hayek, or von Mises, or Friedman, or even Stossel when they write of “sweatshops” either in today’s 3rd world or in America at the turn of the century.
I used to work in a GMAD plant. I was a UAW member.
I can say without fear of contradiction that the average UAW member doesn't give a flying f**** about the quality of the product they put out/assemble. They care about;
Unions are always and everywhere nothing but the theft of private property to be steered to Obama and Al Franken to steal elections. Period, end of story. Unions steal the property of (largely) white, capitalist, men, and give it to Obama, so that he can give it to others in exchange for their votes.
Maybe I wouldn’t have had my GM bonds go from $38500 value to $3850 overnight.
Profitable?
I am able to say for certain that I will never own a GM product again
Apparently, the engine (and other parts) weren’t put together correctly. Some servos on the carb were installed backwards along with a dozen other serious problems with the car. Maybe they were smoking pot when they put the car together.
We dumped the car after 14K miles. Notice that it was just above the 12K mile warranty. GM stopped supporting us after the warranty expired.
BTW, I fault the GM management who made the decisions to cut corners at the expense of my safety and their quality.
Without the UAW GM would still be the world’s largest, most profitable automaker with the largest cash reserves in the industry.
Where would Community Organizer Barack O’Bozo be without the UAW?
You’d be stunned at the number of dumb asses on this forum who swallow the “mean managers were mean to people, so thank God for the federal government and unions saving poor child workers” line. I USED to believe it until I read the works of Sowell, Friedman, von Mises, von Hayek, Stossel, etc.
Profitable?"
I was going to say profitable and privately owned.
My last new Crewcab Diesel truck the headliner was falling and it leaked water from the cab marker lights pouring inside,and the Oil leaks,but Chevy did nothing what the hell 54K with @1700 in union extortion/Health care balled up in the price,I kept the 04 Dodge dually Cummins diesel I have now and got rid of the new chevy duramax.
“Maybe I wouldn’t have had my GM bonds go from $38500 value to $3850 overnight.”
Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!!
(I use the oxymoron "government workers" in the real sense, in that their is no work that really means anything that gets done by them)
A lot better off. Unions are for the lazy scum of the Earth
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