that it costs more for GM to produce a car than it does Toyota even when the factories are in the US. However, GM employees once they retire, will not end up on the public dole with their hands out trying to figure out a way to survive. Their employee retirement and health benefits will relieve society of that burden. Can you say that for the employees that will retire from Toyota plants in our country? GM, for whatever motivation, decided it had a responsibility to its employees through to the end of their lives.

I don't believe a corporation should have that burden. I don't get the connection where someone that builds steel washers should be in the health insurance business. Most companies today though have enough compassion for their loyal employees that they know, if they don't provide that assistance, those employees will not be as productive, take more sick days, and have terrible family and financial problems which will detract from their contribution to the firm. In this country you have to have a cold heart to not feel some responsibility to your workers.

But put that company into competition with some company from a country with government-supplied health care and social safety nets and they don't stand a chance unless they leave their employees to founder or shift their workforce out of the country. The UAW has certainly overreached in their lifetime but overall they've probably done much more good than harm and especially in recent history.

I saw an interesting post yesterday that has great merit in this current crisis. Why not ask the oil companies to come to the aid of the Big 3 auto makers? After all, the gas-guzzling behemoths they've produced for all these years have contributed greatly to the profits of Exxon and Shell. Maybe it's telling about the corporate cultures that rule over these industries that there is no loyalty exhibited right now and they're willing to sit on the sidelines and watch their previous benefactors die a slow death.

Art