Automaker Bailout BS!!

TW: Have been remiss on posting re the automaker bailout for no other reason than there is so much flying around relative to the bailout that I have not been able to pin myself down to fairly absorb it enough to have a perspective. But thanks to the inimitable Larry Kudlow, I have finally found a nugget to highlight.

I am increasingly agnostic on whether bankruptcy or some sort of government intervention is the better route. There are many arguments on both sides, most of them bad and one ends up picking the least bad one. But I will leave that small issue until later (if I get around to it).

There is now a cabal of mainly Southern Republican Senators blocking the current iteration of the intervention. These Senators clearly have an agenda beyond this particular intervention. Some have big foreign car interests in their states (i.e. Shelby AL, Corker TN etc.), some have visions of leading a Republican small government revival (i.e. Coburn OK etc.). Most of them have an axe to grind with unions generally. All Senators have their own parochial interests so I begrudge the first group no more than I would those Dem and Repub MI, OH, WI Senators pushing for the intervention. The latter group of small government patriots concern me as they are ideologues and ideologues can get you into some deep holes, but again that is for a diffferent post.

This post is about intellectual dishonesty. The Republicans are pinning the blame for the failure of the latest intervention on the UAW.

"...In truth, the UAW is to blame...Average compensation for the Detroit little three is $72.31. Toyota's average wage is $47.60, Honda's is $42.05, and Nissan's is $41.97, for an average of $44.20. So Corker's idea was to bring that $72 a lot closer to that $44."

--Kudlow via the conservative Real Clear Politics site

We posted on this last month(http://treylaura.blogspot.com/2008/11/gm-et-al-what-to-do-part-6.html). The $70+/hr figure is an average reflecting the salary and benefits of not only current GM/Ford workers but the retiree costs at those firms as well. There is a gap between current compensation of the domestic autoworkers but the gap is small and rapidly decreasing (despite the fact that most of the foreign owned auto companies are located in lower cost areas, but again a separate topic).

A guy like Kudlow knows this but attempts to perpetuate a stereotype to further his right-wing agenda. That is intellectual dishonesty. I hate intellectual dishonesty. More posts to come.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/whos_losing_the_us_car_busines.html