Whose "gold-plated" benefits?

I thought this comment on another blog contains some good points, and some information I hadn't been aware of.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/11/double-marty-ni.html
robertdfeinman says...

A concerted effort by the right to finish off what's left of the unions, especially the UAW.

Andrew Sorkin in the NY Times today calls what the GM workers have "gold-plated" benefits. The mindset has so shifted that what was once considered a decent job with a good salary and benefits is now "gold-plated".

There is no mention of the gold-plated bonuses on Wall Street which have averaged over $100K per worker in recent years.

There is no mention of the $150 billion going to keep AIG afloat which has gone through without a peep. Instead the $25 billion for the big three should be withheld so that they can be forced into bankruptcy and punish their workers and investors.

Until last year the auto industry was selling record numbers of vehicles. If they were so terrible and over priced then who was buying them? One can quarrel whether the rise of the SUV was in response to consumer demand or was pushed by the automakers, but however it got started the customers were happy buying them.

The auto makers were delivering what sold and making a big profit from this. What would Wall Street have said if GM had discontinued their biggest sellers and said "eat your spinach" to their customers?

The hypocrisy of the right never ceases to amaze me. When firms respond to the market the are criticized for not being virtuous, and when the preferences shift they are criticized for not having anticipated this and investing in speculative product development.

The heads of Exxon (at least) have been honest. They say they are in the oil business, they are making a lot of money from this, their stockholders are happy and they aren't planning to change anything. They point to the reality that the world will be running on oil for a long time to come. They don't make social policy, they make money.

Yet when it comes to the big three they are supposed to be social innovators. Finally, to cap things off, the critics fail to notice that the other firms are more similar to the big three than they are different. Toyota makes gas guzzlers and the Japanese firms in the US pay salaries and benefits similar to Detroit.

What they don't have (yet) is the legacy costs from having been here long enough to have a large number of retirees. When they start feeling the pinch the anti-worker right will suggest cutting off granny's health care and pension benefits as well.

It is amazing that workers (white collar included) don't see that the last 40 years has been a continual battle against the hard-won gains by labor. As Buffet said, there is class warfare and his class is winning.

The push to kill the UAW is just the latest round in the battle.