Letter: Throwing good money at bad a poor idea

According to University of Michigan economist Mark Perry, it costs over $73 per hour to employ a union auto worker. Is it right to tax the average worker making $28.50 to save the jobs of workers whose labor cost is over $73 an hour?

Is it wise, particularly during tough economic times, to throw taxpayer money at companies that are being crippled by labor unions, which refuse to make concessions? The Financial Times recently wrote: "The UAW has ruled out concessions... to help rescue the ailing Detroit-based car industry. The union has been emboldened by the election of a Democratic president and a Democratic-controlled Congress."

Throwing money at this problem will simply make matters worse. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently stated in The New York Times, "the automakers will stay the course - the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses." Romney then added, "Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check."

Yes, the American auto industry is an important part of the U.S. economy. But unless the unions agree to come down to reality, writing the Big Three a $25 billion check, care of the American taxpayer, is just throwing good money at bad.

"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul," wrote George Bernard Shaw. We need some common sense here, but that appears to be too much to ask with the Demolitionists, ahem, Democrats, in control of Congress.

George Shaw
Yuba City