Originally Posted by Checkerboard Strangler
Mellow darling, even though I am normally against bailouts I will vote "thumbs up"...with several reservations:

1) The industry MUST seek out and hire either Jonathan Goodwin or an equivalent, an inventor-genius-madman who is totally OUTSIDE the car culture of Detroit. They must be willing to implement his ideas WITHOUT subjecting them to the standard GM death by a thousand cuts.

2) Either Lee Iacocca or someone with his ambition and ethics MUST provide the blueprint by which the industry brings the bacon back home to the taxpayer the way that Chrysler did when they got their historic bailout in the 1980's, complete with the famous "if you can find a better built car, buy it" campaign.

3) The electric car...it is time and it is a requirement, an absolute MUST CARRY, and a bailout without a firm commitment is a deal breaker. The technology is here, and it's at the point where DVD burners and DVD set top recorders were just a few short years ago, very expensive.
Detroit needs to do for the electric car what Japan did for DVD, make it AFFORDABLE. The government can HELP, they MUST help.

4) Efficiency is the mantra. Speed and power through development of better efficiency is the only avenue through which "sex appeal" can be marketed. Stress the innovation and ingenuity that is uniquely American. Push it and push it hard.
Sell ingenuity and innovation as American pride.
That's right...where we once wrapped heavy iron and gas guzzling hedonism in the flag, we now must wrap mind boggling fuel economy combined with head turning performance.
It's not impossible...hey even the latest CORVETTE gets 25 mpg on the freeway when you keep your foot out of it, and that's a
FIVE HUNDRED HORSEPOWER CAR!

All four points are must carry and inattention to any of them are immediate deal breakers.

One last one...either the unions make concessions or the Big Three are allowed to go bankrupt and kick them out altogether.
Yes, it hurts a lot. Losing everything hurts more...pick your poison UAW.

I read that the unions already have made concessions... GM has been complaining a long time about their lack of competitiveness with the Japanese manufacturers, and apparently the negotiations have led to the position that as of next year, wages for both will be at approximate parity.

Can anyone confirm that?

I did find this , which indicates that with performance bonuses and 10% overtime, the assembler in the example makes $72,500 per year; and the tool&die maker would make over $83,000 per year.

Hmm.

In contrast, the average professional engineer starting salary is well under 60k, for the same (or more) hours. Even the medians range from 66k (health and safety engineers) to 98k (petroleum - heh); the median of the medians is $73,900.

Not sure what to make of it, but those are the numbers.

Castigat Ridendo Mores
(laughter succeeds where lecturing fails)

"Those who will risk nothing, risk everything"