Worker Unions — A Double-Edged Sword
I was talking to my buddy Mike (who also blogs on Bailout Bunker) and he opened my eyes to something I haven’t thought about before. We were talking about the auto industry and how the media was putting executives on the spotlight. So, normally, I was all pissed off at the executives — falling victim to media’s shrewd prowers. Then Mike brought up a little big factor to keep the argument balanced — the worker unions and the average salary an employee in the Big Three gets.
Why isn’t anyone blasting the unions for their greed, people?
I can better understand the auto companies now. They have to overpay employees while getting huge bonuses for themselves – and are expected to make better cars? WTF! No wonder foreign automakers are striving (or were striving until the recession showed up). It’s like beating the worst contender in a horse race — you don’t have to be the best to be #1.
I think there’s definitely a need for worker unions but they have to be regulated. Not really sure how regulated they are currently but, goddamn, $60/hour for a factory worker? I went to college and never got close to that!
Auto Industry to Survive on Obama’s Terms
Sorry for the long gap between posts but we were working on some other projects while the Bunker was put in back burner for a while. This, however, doesn’t mean that we didn’t keep tabs on the numerous bailouts that our government has extended to corrupt corporations.
Remember how the auto industry was begging the government for money in exchange to building more fuel-efficient cars? Well, that was what they agreed upon last year when they testified before Congress. The leaving Bush Administration asked that, in order for the government to help, the companies had to come up with a plan that would not only improve their financial situation but also remain profitable. That was December 2008 — the car companies presented their case and got enough loans to survive until the end of March.
More than 3 months later, the auto industry came back to the government for help and this time Obama asked the companies to show progress. Unfortunately — as predicted by many bailout opposers — the car companies don’t really have anything to show for these couple months. At Obama Administration’s request, G.M.’s CEO, Richard Wagoner, resigned from his position in face of failure to turn the company around. He left the company with a $20 million retirement fund.
It’s unbelievable how rewarding top-executive jobs are even in the current state of Economy. This guy Richard Wagoner is partly responsible for G.M.’s failure and he gets to retire with a $20 million retirement fund??? Wow!
Anyway, so now the government has given Chrysler 30 days to merge with Italian automaker FIAT, while G.M. and Ford were given 60 days to turn around their companies. One quick note about the Chrysler-FIAT situation: FIAT was in the same position some time ago until it kinda got back on its feet. How the hell is Chrysler looking to stay alive by partnering with another weak automaker???
Well, be it as it is, the auto industry is currently going through a survival-of-the-fittest test. Only the ones worth living will survive and I’m totally supporting this. Down with dead weight, forward with the resourceful management teams!
Now, back to the bunker… see ya next time.
Money-Saving, Green Gadget
If you’re interested in saving a little money and being “green” about it, this is the MP3 player for you. While it can charge conventionally in a USB port, the “green” magic comes into play when you run out of power without a USB in sight. Just crank it. One minute of cranking nets you 40 minutes of play. You even get an attachment to crank charge your cell phone. No more wasting money on batteries and maybe you’ll save a bit on your electric bill if you’re really dedicated.
Now, despite the hype on that site, hand-crank-powered devices have been arround for a long time. Think about your Vietnam movies, or even Forrest Gump — the field radios were hand-crank-powered. What’s impressive is that the technology has been given a new lease on life with this innovative implementation.
As these troubling times go on, I will try and bring to your attention more and more of these fantastic devices that can save you on your energy bills.
From The Bailout Bunker,
Good Luck to Us All!
A Diagnosis from Dr. Paul
The following is an economic diagnosis from Congressman Ron Paul. He delivers honesty just as well as he delivers babies. It’s too bad there aren’t more people like him in office. At least now they’re giving him more opportunity to get the message of fiscal responsibility out there as well as bring to light the reality that our situation has its roots in government.
Ron Paul on More Financial Stimuli
I wish him health and long life. May he be here to stumble irresponsible economic intervention and be a thorn in their side for as long as he can.
Stimulus Packages Are Like Meteors
The way government bills (such as the bailout and stimulus packages) work is a lot like a meteor. It starts out as an asteroid (our tax money), it floats around out there waiting to be used for something. Then, something happens that knocks our money asteroid toward the Earth, a natural disaster or an economic crisis or what have you. Then the bill gets written, it invariably attempts to allocate our tax money toward whatever goal is deemed the “right” course of action (note: “right” is in quotes because it usually isn’t). That’s when the meteor first hits the atmosphere of political greed, where our money burns away as it gets diverted to grease palms and fill pork barrels in order to get the appropriate votes.
Afterwards it is further disintegrated as the appropriate lower level legislators tear off pieces of it to line their own pockets. By the time it gets to the people that need it or could use it as it was intended, that massive meteor is a small chunk the size of a golf ball.
Ultimately, if you have a cause that you are passionate about, be it helping hurricane victims, improving the economy or whatever, the government is the single worst method for doing it. You are better off looking to donate to a private charity that deals with your passion of choice or rolling up your sleeves pitching in personally with research toward your passion or even organizing your own charities. The government isn’t the answer, it’s a last option and even then it should not be used.
The “Big Vote” is Upon Us!
Emperor John McCain “Palpatine” Vs Barack “Sauron” Obama, who will the Great Evil Overlord for the next four years be? The ultimate result, if these were truly our only choices, will be the same as this lovely Simpson’s clip illustrates.
No Choice or is There?
There is a real alternative however — vote third party. Any third party vote will unsettle the thrones of Red vs. Blue and make real change possible. By showing the duopoly that they can be replaced, we will show them that in a real democracy we have the option to try something new. In these tough economic times it is important to not let business go “as usual” lest we repeat the mistakes that lead up to the Great Depression.
So its your choice really: Palpatine, Sauron or the Rebel Fellowship…
Good Luck to us all!
Presidential Election: Red vs. Blue?
I strongly recommend if you are dissatisfied with the way events are unfolding with the wars, the Bailout, the inflation, or what have you, that you vote 3rd party.
My reasoning is as follows: if you’re in a red state your vote won’t matter because there is an overwhelming majority of red and your vote is either going to go along with the majority or go down the rabbit hole to oblivion with blue. However, if you vote 3rd party, you’ll be telling the established parties “Hey, I don’t like what you’re doing!” or “Go to Hell!”
Now you’re probably asking, “Mike, if I’m in a blue State and I vote red won’t that send the same message?”
I’m afraid it won’t as it means that you’re willing to still go along with this mess. Red and blue are the insiders so no matter who wins, they win. If you want to make an impact, vote 3rd party and let’s help them feel the wobble under their thrones.
Devastator is Government
“How,” you ask, can I make such a statement? Simply put, if you’ve seen any of the classic Transformers, you may be familiar with the Constructicons, a group of Decepticons of good Intelligence and questionable moral fibre that merge into a massive, near-mindless brute of incredible strength.
I think it’s perfectly analogous to the government. A group of intelligent people of questionable moral fibre (there are exceptions ofcourse, thank goodness) coming together into a gigantic morass of warfare/welfare statism. Those exceptions are merely a bad headache or the occasional stomach flu to an otherwise perfect behemoth. Yet, sometimes they do at least cripple the behemoth for a time, like when the first Bailout Bill was rejected thanks in no small part to folks like you and I.
Now, you folks may be thinking, “well, we may want to consolidate the government and make it smaller and more agile,” and that’s a good start. But we have to make sure we don’t end up with Mega-Bush and Darth Cheney in a more literal sense.
No. What we need is to throw out that Failout Bill and return to a better document for cutting out the pork and keeping our lawmakers honest. Not to mention it would save us alot of money to spend at Wal-Mart.
Wall St. vs. Wal-Mart
In the red corner, weighing in at 8,519.21 (at least since the last weigh in of the Dow at 6:31pm today), we have Wall Street! In the blue corner, weighing in at 5,700 stores worldwide, we have Wal-Mart!
But seriously, folks, let’s look at what each has in store for us in the near future.
Wall Street has just handed us a hell of a lot of bad debt with no end in sight due to the provisions of the Failout Bill. These provisions give the Fed and Treasury Department a blank check to waste our money however they damn well please.
Wal-Mart, on the other hand, gives us incredible prices and selection that are perfect for our dwindling wallets, thanks to inflation, which is brought about by wrecklessness on the part of the Fed, as well as their wasting of our hard-earned money on Quixotic crusades in the economy.
So, while Don Bernanke and Sancho Paulson are tilting at windmills, Wal-Mart is shaping up to give us higher standards of quality in all of their products starting with clothing and working their way through everything.
This is very fortuitous as we will need all the “lowest prices” we can get as the potential for depression looms ever closer.
Good luck to us all.
What’s Going On With WaMu Cards?
In this time of financial crisis, I am looking to save as much as I can. Money has become a commodity which, according to my buddy, Michael, will soon lose its value. In lieu of my money-spending awarness, I am trying to save up as much as possible on food, too. Lately, I’ve been fond of the $5 sandwiches at Subway and have been charging my meals to my WaMu credit card.
I use Mint.com to track my expenses and keep on top of my budgets. For days now, I noticed the WaMu credit card (wamucards.com) is not updating. In fact, the last charge that appears on my online statement dates October 14.
This is weird. Is there something wrong with WaMu’s online system, as part of some sort of merging going on now that it’s part of JP Morgan Chase? Not sure.
As much as I’d like to think that I’m spending money while WaMu’s not counting, I don’t really think this is happening. Nevertheless, I think that WaMu’s clients deserve an explanation about this! It’s very irresponsible from them and I hope something is done in this respect because I’d hate to see my credit score deteriorate because of WaMu’s issues.
Then again, will credit scores matter in the near future? I don’t want to believe Mike, damnit!
Polls
What Bank Has Most of Your Money?
- Small Local Bank or Credit Union (27.0%, 4 Votes)
- JP Morgan Chase (20.0%, 3 Votes)
- Other Large Bank (20.0%, 3 Votes)
- Wells Fargo (13.0%, 2 Votes)
- Wachovia (13.0%, 2 Votes)
- Citibank (7.0%, 1 Votes)
- Bank of America (0.0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 15
Loading ...