Ah Tom, when you say <"Odd that the one thing most struggling industries seem to have in common is unions that demand massive benefits for a lifetime."> You fail to mention, or perhaps recognize, those "massive benefits" are contractural obligations management entered into. The fact the corporations failed to make provisions to fund them, and instead stole from the set asides for these programs to use in current funding is called malfeasance.

Odd that the most arrogant corporate giants (Charley Wilson, what's good for GM is good for the nation) now chose to blame their employees for their failure to perform their contractural obligations. The difficulty the giants are having competing with the Japanese, ain't nothin yet. Wait until India and China really weigh in and enter the fray.

It is time to recognize the dangers of corporatism, stop making innane excuses for Bush and his neo con hordes and return to a rule of law and insist that even Republican corporate elites both stop stealing from the stockholders and live up to their legal obligations.

Publius