Think about it: what have the automobile companies been pushing down our collective throats? SUVs. Big vehicles that were (for a while, at least) not under the auspices of any of our environmental or safety laws. Why? SUVs didn’t fit in any of the car classes that existed when the laws were made. The auto makers created a new genre and got away with it. They marketed and advertised these vehicles ‘til they were blue in the face. The executives knew they could convince the ever-gullible American public that they had to own one, that they needed one of these vehicles. The companies have been doing it for years and laughing all the way to the bank.

Now they’re crying they don’t have enough money. When the price of gasoline got out of reach for the average American, the public started to wise up. Now the gas-guzzlers are not very popular. Also, as global warming has become an increasing, uncomfortable truth, people want “green” vehicles. The American auto makers haven’t cared. All they wanted to do was push, push, push the bigger vehicles and more profits. Screw the rest of the world. Screw the rest of humanity. They gave only lip service to coming up with new kinds of propulsion and innovative vehicles. As long as the car makers were earning big bucks for their execs, they didn’t give a damn.

Now they’re throwing a temper tantrum and demanding more money from us to bail them out for their lack of vision and disregard for “the little guy.” So, screw ‘em. Tough cookies. Every automobile executive should be fired, as well as the board of directors. Never mind golden parachutes, they don’t even deserve to be laid off—which is what they’re going to do to thousands of American workers.

Nope, they should be unceremoniously led to the door and put on the street. Let the punishment fit the crime: they should be made to live in a home along with the rest of their blue collar workforce, relieved of all their money, stocks, and investments, have the big ticket toys taken away, left with only three months worth of rent in their bank account, and be told to look for another job (and no executive or management jobs, either). Oh, and the money in the bank is their only money. They also have to use it to pay for food, clothing, heat, and insurance. Let them live out the consequences of those executive decisions, just like their soon-to-be ex-employees.

That’s what they deserve for being so selfish and short-sighted. They didn’t care about us; we shouldn’t care about them.

And as for the unions, they’re just as much to blame. The original idea of the unions was a good one: protect workers from mistreatment by large and powerful employers. Unfortunately, certain unions have soiled their own image and credibility. (I am not going to make a blanket statement that all unions have acted dishonorably; at the same time, we’ve all heard stories that support my claim that some are less-than-honorable.) The United Auto Workers (UAW) is in the center of this spotlight.

Before and during my college years, I have done my time working as a commercial fisherman, a boat yard worker, a dishwasher at a restaurant, and a press operator at a dry cleaner’s. I’ve also worked other part-time jobs in retail since then. I am saying this to show that I have worked the same types of jobs that many other Americans do. Never once did I think I was being paid too little. The pay fit the job. You didn’t require a college education to do what I was doing and I accepted that.

Back in the early-to-mid-1990s, I worked as a college-educated professional in the high tech industry. I was still paying off my student loans for my Computer Science degree. I had a friend who worked in Louisville, KY whose husband worked on the assembly line at the nearby Ford plant. He was younger than I was and never attended college. Yet, he was earning $10,000 ($10K) per year more than I was (and possibly more than that due to bonuses). Just the other day, I heard someone on a news show state that the average worker in our American car companies earns in the mid-to-upper-$70K range.

What?!

So, a college education means nothing? As a matter of fact, I had to pay off a huge debt just so I could earn less than someone on an assembly line? What’s wrong with this picture?

Again, I am not saying that the unions should not exist or that workers in manufacturing should be taken advantage of or paid pittance for what they do. However, we have become so greedy as a nation that we feel entitled to “the good life” no matter what job we do or the fact that we’re no more than high school educated (or even uneducated). Apparently, a college education is not worth the money.

So the unions have driven the cost of automobiles up; hence, many foreign cars are priced better. And because the UAW insists on their workers getting paid more than software industry individuals, people are less likely to buy American. And guess what? The foreign cars are designed and built better. I know: I bought American out of pure patriotism. After being shafted by the car dealerships and driving cars that were “old” by 90K miles, I’ve been buying and driving used foreign cars that don’t get old until they’ve got 230K miles on them.

So, we shouldn’t get mad at just the corporate executives. The unions are to blame, as well, because of their own greed and demand to get more than they should.

The American car companies have done it to themselves and don’t deserve to be saved. If they want taxpayer’s money, then they had better come up with plans to immediately begin manufacturing “green” cars, let the government partially own them so we get a return on our investment, and the unions better suck it up and not demand unreasonable pay.

Selfishness is the root of the problem and has got to stop.

© 2008 by J. C. Callahan