And it's about damn time, too

I simply don't understand the kind of vitriol that's being directed at auto workers in the UAW, simply because they've been able to earn a living wage. It's astounding to me that hardly a peep was uttered when AIG spent a chunk of it's bailout money on a fancy resort junket for its executives, or when financial company execs walked away with tens of millions of dollars in golden parachutes, but let auto workers try to hang onto their pay and health insurance and pensions, and everyone screams bloody murder. It's sort of like the outrage directed at teachers. Instead of demanding that ALL workers get the kind of benefits that used to be standard as part of the employer/worker compact, too many Americans subscribe to the "misery loves company" doctrine, demanding that their fellow workers join them in the race to the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

It's not the fault of the workers that Detroit continued to crank out gas-guzzling SUVs, marketing them as a kind of hybrid of macho terrorist-thwart and child protectant against rampaging tree-huggers driving Corollas. And it's not the fault of the workers that Detroit once again, having learned nothing from the oil crunch of the 1970s, found itself caught with its gas-guzzling pants down when gas rose to $4/gallon last summer, unable and unwilling to retool for the future.

But as someone who now drives to work on New Jersey highways, and has noticed since the storms of last weekend that NOT ONE FUCKING SUV DRIVER IN THE STATE has made even the slightest effort to clear the snow off the roof of his/her behemoth, thereby putting everyone who drives behind them at risk from the massive flying shards of ice that fly off their vehicle roofs at 70 miles per hour, I say about the end of the line for SUVs in Ohio and Wisconsin "Good riddance." Not to the workers, but to the vehicles which their management made them continue to crank out long after the market for them collapsed.

It's appalling that these people have been thrown out of work right before Christmas. It's appalling that once again, they are the casualties of short-sighted management that refused to look beyond trying to get through the next quarter. It's appalling that Rick Wagoner still has a job while the people who just did what they were told have no idea where they go from here. It's appalling that the government is giving Rick Wagoner another few billion dollars to squander in his collusion with the oil companies to perpetuate the internal combustion engine, instead of helping those who are going to be displaced by the inevitable collapse of the Big Three to prepare for other kinds of work so that they are not simply just tossed on the scrap heap of history while Rick Wagoner leaves with a taxpayer-paid golden parachute.

I want these workers helped to prepare for new jobs. But as for the vehicles they were building, well, I'm not shedding any tears. The roads here in New Jersey will be safer without them.