{"id":53,"date":"2022-09-06T18:53:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T18:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/?p=53"},"modified":"2022-09-06T18:53:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T18:53:42","slug":"big-3-stooges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"Big 3 Stooges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We have a new president-elect and signs of hope are everywhere, from celebrations in the streets of urban America over the first clinically-sane president in eight years, to the victory laps of homophobic suburbia over gay rights rollbacks.  Things are looking so hopeful that, even on the brink of the biggest failure in U.S. business history, leaders of the Big 3 auto makers flew to the nation\u2019s capital — on individual private jets<\/em> \u2013 to appear before Congress seeking $25 billion to tide them over till payday.  (Approximate cost of 3 private jets: $60,000.00.  Approximate cost of a round trip commercial airline ticket from Detroit to Washington, D.C.: 500 bucks.  Irony: Priceless!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have presided over the biggest business disaster since Enron decided to market New Coke under the name \u201cEdsel.\u201d  In the first half of 2008, the Big 3 lost a combined $28.6 billion dollars, continuing a trend as consistent as Amy Winehouse\u2019s downward spiral:  FORD has lost more than 75% of its stock value<\/a> under the expert guidance of CEO Alan Mullally, who rode to the rescue of the ailing auto company in August of 2006, \u201cearning\u201d $28 million dollars for 4 months of work<\/a><\/em>.)  When Rick Waggoner assumed the reigns of General Motors in 2001, its stock was trading in the 60s, and as high as $94 per share<\/a>. Today, you can buy GM for under 3 bucks a share<\/a><\/em>, its lowest level since World War II when, if you believe old people with spotty memories, things were pretty crummy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a privately-held company since August of 2007, Chrysler isn\u2019t required to divulge earnings, profit, loss or, luckily for CEO Robert Nardelli, executive compensation.  Nardelli will only cop to $1 in yearly \u201csalary\u201d but refuses to discuss \u201cother compensation,\u201d which history tells us is the lion\u2019s share of executive recompense, like what a Vegas hooker can steal from your hotel room before you wake up.  (Nardelli\u2019s own history suggests he\u2019s well taken care of:  the \u201cdisgraced\u201d former CEO of Home Depot<\/a>, after presiding over a 40% loss in the company\u2019s value and earning $38 million in 2006, was dismissed a year later with a $210 million golden parachute.)  By most estimates Chrysler has lost at least $2 billion in two years<\/a>.  That makes Chrysler the fair-haired sibling of these rotten, spoiled kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So naturally these CEOs, in reaching out for unprecedented government assistance after enriching themselves with combined salaries<\/a> in the hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a>, have assumed full responsibility for failure on a Titanic level, and even offered to step down and cede control to more responsible stewardship\u2026 like, say, drunken monkeys.  Right?  Um, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, across a variety of media outlets, the blame for the failure of the U.S. Auto industry has been steered away from these captains of industry and laid right where it belongs: on wasteful union extravagances, like a living wage, basic health care and meager pensions.  We\u2019ve been told \u201csome\u201d UAW workers earn more than $70 an hour, and that UAW bosses make \u201cextravagant salaries.\u201d<\/a>  Look for the union label, it\u2019s made of spun gold!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, that $70 per hour figure is inflated to include health and pension benefits \u2013 and the healthcare and retirement costs of all retired workers<\/em>.  In fact, the average union assembly line worker makes about $28 per hour<\/a>\u2026 and those \u201cextravagant UAW salaries\u201d?  UAW President Ron Gettelfinger earned a total compensation of $158,530 for 2006<\/a>.  The union\u2019s officers combined<\/em> made $2.9 million in 2006.  That\u2019s lunch money for America\u2019s corporate CEOs\u2026 after which, for effect, they will drink your milk shake!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And 70 bucks an hour \u2013 however inflated to inspire a sense of outrage in the little guy at home watching his about-to-be-obsolete analog TV \u2013 is a pittance compared to the $622,000 average annual salary<\/a> of a Goldman Sachs employee in the year the company ran up record profits on dubious investments that since collapsed, taking the banking, housing, automotive and milk shake markets with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes no sense to think that Americans grown accustomed to such garish over-consumption will be all riled up by the woefully amateurish greed of union thousand-aires.  It makes less sense for annoying media personalities to perpetuate these gross exaggerations (Bill O\u2019Reilly recently re-upped at FOX News for $10 million a year, or roughly ten bucks for every time he makes you want to vomit), or for Congress to join in on the dogpile (even without factoring in legitimate additional compensation \u2013 excluding retired or dead Senators \u2013 like free health care, life insurance, full pensions, and office expenses ranging from $2 million and up,<\/em> a Congressperson\u2019s salary is currently $169,300\u2026 far exceeding the rumored UAW $70 an hour windfall for an undetermined \u201csome,\u201d and higher even than the \u201cextravagant\u201d salary of a UAW president.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of troublesome true facts, the table has been set for more union givebacks, and even the very real possibility of allowing one of the Big 3 to fail as a way to dismantle the impotent remains of a formerly-virile union that once knocked up a working class with low self esteem into a radiant middle class.  And what will management give back?  The joke is, that a guy who was paid a quarter of a billion dollars in one year,<\/em> like Nardelli, could<\/em> in fact subsist on a $1 annual salary.  For many, many lifetimes.  And Waggoner, who negotiated a retirement package of $4.6 million dollars per year even in the event of bankruptcy<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>could similarly stand to forego some of the excessive compensation \u201cowed\u201d him, if not exactly \u201cdue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course they won\u2019t.  And don\u2019t count on our easily-outraged national media, or equally purple-faced representatives in Congress, to shift accountability away from the easy target \u2013 unions \u2013 toward the three guys who thought private jets were the only way to fly.  It\u2019s a lot to ask for prudent decision-making at the top\u2026 at least until the drunken monkeys take over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a new president-elect and signs of hope are everywhere, from celebrations in the streets of urban America over the first clinically-sane president in eight years, to the victory laps of homophobic suburbia over gay rights rollbacks.  Things are looking so hopeful that, even on the brink of the biggest failure in U.S. business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54,"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eatthepoor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}