To recognize a dysfunctional system that has developed and tweak it into an operative one.

When you say <"So, I guess Step One would be to start paying our employees what India and China pay theirs?"> I am going to assume you are being flip, rather than showing your stupidity. And you didn't mention that Japan and Germany both pay their employees more than our auto industry does. Ergo the push to locate production plants in the US. And, you ignore the higher productivity these plants enjoy with American workers.

But again, you either miss the point, or choose to ignore it. Contract obligations are both ethical and legal obligations. The auto execs made these obligations, the workers had an absolute right to expect the companies to live up to them by adequately funding them and not using them as a resource for other purposes.

It is not a socialist ploy to demand corporate leadership to obey the law or live up to contractural obligations.

Publius