President Obama Is Taking a Step in the Right Direction wtih Carmakers

According to this article from the AP, the Obama administration may actually be heading in the right direction with GM and Chrysler. He has said that the companies need to make progress themselves before receiving more government aid, which, really, should be common sense. Throwing money at a failed system will just waste money and prolong its inevitable failure. I'd rather not see them (or any other company) get more of the taxpayers' money ever, but at least he's making them make some progress on their own.

The highlight of the news in this article for me was this:

"GM and Chrysler are pushing the UAW to accept shares of stock in exchange for half of the payments into a union-run trust fund for retiree health care. They also want labor costs from the union to be competitive with Japanese
automakers with U.S. operations."

Amazing idea! Be competitive! Because whatever else you may blame their problems on, the fact that the UAW has forced them to compensate their employees well beyond that of rival (Japanese) companies operating in the US. I'm all for people getting fair pay and benefits, but it has to actually be fair. You get payed for your work; if you are getting paid so much that your work no longer helps achieve profit for the company, your pay is no longer fair. It may make you feel better to get paid more, but if it's so much that your company goes bankrupt, well...