I remember the days when manufacturing and heavy industry were what drove America — and the auto industry did a lot of that driving.
Today I just read that General Motors is offering lucrative “buyouts” to all 74,000 of its hourly employees. But this isn’t your “cut back the staff” ordinary round of buyouts. This is designed to get eligible retirees and near-retirees to take the money and run so they can be replaced with cheaper workers.
I hope, for the sake of our economy, this buyout plan and others do work for the best of all. We live in a world that will never again see American workers, American workmanship, and/or a manufacturing-oriented workplace ever again dominate. But we surely need to find ways to maintain our standards of living — and offer a “living wage” to everyone.
Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers.
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