"I can't go without health insurance, I've got three kids..." > FORD Layof

[The Cleaner]

I heard this last night when the news broke the story regarding the Ford layoffs/buyouts. My first thought was, "What's happened to America? What the HELL has happened to America?"

People laid off with no recourse. Families going withouth health insurance. Sky high medical costs. Jobs tough to come by. Companies hiring illegal labor and busting unions. No more worker protections. No more pensions. No more retirement.

What gives? I'm not so sure I like this New America.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "I'm not worried at all. Everything is peachy." - pResident AWOL

"Me and my republicon oil cronies are making massive megabucks with our oil profits. So why don't you proles just shut up and sit down." - Your Kompassiontely Konzervative Kommander, George AWOL Bush

[ForFuxakes]

2. Ummm...Thank Ronnie Raygun

As I am in my mid thirties, I have seen the erosion of the middle class as a result of the Raygun adminstration. The rush to buy Japanese cars in the early 80's and the busting of the Air traffic union was the watershed moment in what we see now...:shrug:

[fasttense]

4. Not to mention Raygun's huge deficit spending hidden by doubling

the Social Security tax on us Baby Boomers then stealing the money. Raygun started this war on the Middle Class and it looks like the bushes are going to finish it off.

[ForFuxakes]

6. Stretching a double into a triple...

I may be going for a long shot here, but I would dare say that even the "neo-con" agenda can trace it's roots to the Raygun admin. Consider this...we prop up a dolt against an unpopular incumbant and put behind him Poppy Bush to run things in the background (quietly). I remember thinking while I was still in high school that Nancy was actually in charge, but now that things have come full circle, it is plain to see theat it was Poppy Bush all along...

[xchrom]

10. nixon.

nixon -- with corporate advisors -- used trade as his crow bar to open relations with china.

that watershed moment made corporations an integral part of the u.s. government and government policy.

that should never have been.

[Clark2008]

11. My dad was soooo correct.

He forbade us from purchasing the Japanese cars warning that it would ruin us down the road.

Sure, he was all for the competition to make American companies stop making gas-guzzling land ships, but there was nothing wrong with the mechanics of any American car.

Today, American cars are built as well as cars from other countries (and, in some cases, better), yet the public still lives in 1979-81 and believes that Japanese cars are better. They're not: they're more expensive to repair and cost more, as a general rule (which is why their resale value is higher - not because they're better - they're just more expensive on the front end).

I have a Mustang - my fifth - and all of them have been magnificant cars. My last one was 12 years old and only needed a clutch (which is maintenance on a standard transmission and not cause for alarm). It was in good running order, otherwise. I just wanted the newer models because they're so cool looking. :)

[ForFuxakes]

14. My Dad was the same way

Grew up in a union household and I have never owned a foreign car either. Knock on wood, all of my American cars (and i have owned cars from all the big three) have been fine. The myth about Japanese cars is just another in a long line of many.

[lectrobyte]

18. Why do I feel like once Ford, GM, maybe Chrysler get out from

under their pension obligations, and close the plants they want to close, that they'll emerge more profitable than ever with even more factories in China, Mexico, South America etc. ? I thought I read in the last month or two that GM had just opened the larget engine factory in the world somewhere in China.

[ForFuxakes]

19. those pensions were created prior to Japanese imports

and the workers that benefitted from them mad the middle class the powerhouse that it once was. Once the big three began to lose market share(imports) they lose profits. Just look at wally world...

Sell a lot a low margin and you will make huge profits. Conversley(sp), sell a few at low margin and you get Ford, GM, Chrys. of 2006

[Greyhound]

24. Is there any point to showing that it is the all the fault of the

hereditary mis-management of the (formerly) big three, and not that of the Japanese and European manufacturers? That it is the ludicrous executive pensions that are the sole cause of their problems and not the workers pensions?

I'm just asking because you sound like your mind is already made-up.

[Warpy]

13. Yes, this administration is the symptom

and Reaganism is the disease. It's why it's absolutely essential to get Repuglicans out of government for the next decade, at the very least.

The problem isn't wholly this administration. They just happen to be in office for the culmination of all the bad economics policies (some from both parties) of the past forty years.

It didn't all start with Reagan, although he made it much, much worse. The free trade (for corporations) dogma has been spouted by both parties, and both parties tried to blame labor for OPEC induced inflation in the 1970s.

Either we need a complete revolution in our government, or we will continue our race to the bottom as one of the most brutal third world countries on the planet.

[raccoon]

15. "The rush to buy Japanese cars in the early 80's?"

Americans might've bought American cars then if the Big Three had made more reliable and gas efficient cars.

But just like now, the big shots at the Big Three are so damned arrogant they think they can make whatever vehicles they want and the American people will buy it, regardless of its quality, gas mileage, etc.

Too bad the rank and file get it in the neck because of their bosses' hubris.

[hogwyld]

25. We are killing our own unions!

So many people go out and buy Japanese cars, forsaking the UAW, and then lament at the lost manufacturing jobs and layoffs. It is at minimum, intellectually dishonest, and at worst hypocritical.

[Greyhound]

26. Do the unions have any way to influence or compel the hiring of

competent management? That is what has destroyed the US auto industry. I've never met one single American that wouldn't buy a domestic auto if they were, in fact, comparable.

[Ravenseye]

3. To answer your question

What the hell has happened to America?

People have become complacent and/or selfish by listening to and believing the right wing corporate/fascist propoganda that they've been innundated with for going on a quarter century.

What gives?

Propoganda bordering on Brainwashing has so stilted many American's minds against liberalism that even when the system they've been told to support collapses in front of their face, they still refuse to turn back to look at it as a valid option.

[Kierkegaard]

5. I'm 100% positive that I don't!

This new 'give everything to the rich and let them mete out as they see fit' system is not going to be pretty.

No reasonable person can believe that rewarding a company for outsourcing work to cheap labor will have any positive long-term effect on our economy. What it does is slowly depress our labor market to the point where it will mirror the markets that are currently being tapped for cheap labor. Eventually, out of necessity, people will work for almost nothing, or enlist in the military. You either become a slave to the system or join up to be cannon fodder.

[savemefromdumbya]

7. This country has treated people badly re healthcare for years

until we get a national health system, free at the pint of use, people some people pay upfront thousands of dollars for healthcare. It's not right.

[JohnyCanuck]

8. Take heart Ford layoff, your kids might no longer have health insurance

,but on the plus side, you've still got the best damned cruise missiles, fighter aircraft, aircraft carriers, nuclear tipped ballistic missiles and nuclear subs that money can buy.

[lectrobyte]

16. will there be a tax base to pay for all that stuff if there's no middle

class?

[physioex]

22. Ummm......

Maybe not, have you seen some of the stuff Iran, and China are working on? It's not long for that either.....

[Q]

9. What happened?

The death of the 'old, redistributionist' Democratic party...replaced by the 'new' Democrats and their 'third way' and corporate takeover of America.

[karmaqueen]

12. Don't worry you are safer now!

I know we worry about paying bills, finding some way to get health insurance and feed our children. But as we think about those trivial problems we can be comforted in knowing that we will not be forced to convert to Islam.Thank you King George! Why can't the American People see what crap we are being fed. I don't know if I am more scared of our government or the people who think they are doing a hecka of a job. The Democrats need to steer the debate to the problems that are hurting us every minute. I am heartbroken that so many of our fellow Americans are in very bad shape through no fault of their own.

[bumblebee1]

21. The American people are being told the crap is chocolate ice cream.

eom

[kaygore]

17. Welcome to America run by and for big business!

And welcome to DU!

They are closing the Ford factory in Norfolk, VA. The workers thought that they had several years before the closure would actually go into effect, but Ford has made such terrible decisions that the factory is already laying off people.

The problem with government by and for corporations is that companies are protected. If we had government by and for business at the turn of the century, buggy whip makers would still be a thriving business!

The irony is that corporate executives are rewarded with huge salaries and bonuses for screwing up just as Bush rewards members of his administration for screwing up.

And still NASCAR Joe embraces Bushco!!!!

Go figure!

[Blue Diadem]

20. It's all very sad..Here Ford is closing a plant and so is Con agra

ConAgra announced yesterday that it's closing two plants and Ford announced one this morning. I think it'll total around 1,000 people in NW Ohio by the time it's done.

There will eventually be no middle class and there will be many more people with no health care, losing their homes..it's just awful. Oh..but we can all go work retail..those are the jobs in our future around here.

I don't like this New America either..

[SoCalDem]

27. Too bad America is such a BIG island, isn;t it?

If we were smaller, we might be able to adjust..Our "new" economy could resemble those of small islands..you know the ones.. the ones where the "natives" rush down to meet the cruise ships..and line the roads leaving the airport...selling their handmade goodies, and produce they grew..

That's how an economy without real jobs, operates..

the local people rely on the kindness of strangers who buy trinkets and snacks from them..

[Rosemary2205]

23. Ford workers will have paid medical bennies for up to 2 years.