flu, I’m no fan of these bailouts either. However, let’s get our facts straight — autoworkers don’t make $70 an hour. Here is where that number comes from:
The average GM assembly-line worker makes about $28 per hour in wages, and I can assure you that GM is not paying $42 an hour in health insurance and pension plan contributions. Rather, the $70 per hour figure (or $73 an hour, or whatever) is a ridiculous number obtained by adding up GM’s total labor, health, and pension costs, and then dividing by the total number of hours worked. In other words, it includes all the healthcare and retirement costs of retired workers. [emphasis in original]
Other than that little bit of disinfo I basically share your opinion. I will say if we had no choice but to do a bailout, I’d rather bail out an industry that makes something (autos) than an industry that makes nothing (financial/banking).
