Thu 19 Feb 2009
How To Respond to a Lie (Updated)
Posted by Frank under Republican Lies
[3] Comments
Backstory: The Republican myth that autoworkers make $70.00 an hour was created by taking the full personnel costs of the United States unionized auto manufacturers, including all retiree costs (such as pensions and health care negotiated in good faith) and dividing it by the number of active non-exempt employees.
The actual take home pay of an autoworker is less than half that figure on an hourly basis or slightly more than $61,000 a year without overtime.
In other words, the $70.00 per hour thing is a lie.
The lie distracts persons from the vision of old folks losing the retirement homes and health care which they worked honestly to earn. Yes, earn. It pollutes policy discourse while demonizing working persons.
Like any good lie, it has a very Nixonian plausible deniability.
But it’s still a lie.
Here is how to respond to a lie:
Addendum:
John Cole has commentary here.
Video via Susie.
Anyone with any intelligence KNOWS the active employees aren’t paid $70.00 an hour. That figure comes from the active payroll with the legacy payments to the UAW, for MORE RETIRED EMPLOYEES THAN ACTIVE ONES.
The legacy payments have to go. They are not supportable in this day & age. I did a post on this very thing 1-9-09, titled “For or against”.
We’ve bought our fair share of ‘new’ cars & trucks, that spent more time in the shop for warranty work than they did on the road. Chevy & Ford both. We won’t do it anymore. It’s not worth it. We buy used. I remember my sister-in-law was car shopping & comparing Hondas to Chrysler. The Chrysler salesman told her they were higher because they are American made. They bought Honda. Legacy payments contribute to that.
What may have worked 30 or 40 years ago won’t get it done now. For the Big 3 to succeed, they have to be able to produce & compete with the foreign brands. They need to spend more time working on getting the same single payer medical the foreign employees have. Not trying to figure out how to keep life-long medical, even after a retiree has gotten to the age they can get Medicare coverage.
I watched the video. The mayor had his chance & blew it. He came off sounding like a rabid campaigner.
When you figure the cost of an employee, you calculate that cost on the total tab including salary and benefits. While it’s true the average auto worker did not “make” $70/hour, it cost their employer $70/hour for the employee to be on the job (or off the job in the case of legacy UAW workers). As I understand it, at one point UAW workers could retire after 30 years service with full medical coverage and fairly decent pension payments. So someone who started working at age 18 could retire at age 48. I’m an economist, but you don’t have to be one to do the math and see that is not sustainable.
I’ve been working for the same employer for 33+ years. I have decent health care (what is termed standard Blue Cross) for myself and my family (spouse and one son) . It offers only token dental coverage (pays about $25 on a routine $100+ exam and cleaning) and provide no routine eye care. It has co-pays and deductibles. I have a supplemental vision plan but pay the entire premium for that myself. My coverage is not free. My share is currently $181 every two weeks. I will continue to pay my share after I retire – it still will not be free. When I get old enough to have medicare, I have to switch to that and my coverage will become secondary but I’ll still pay the going rate for my share.
I’m not complaining because I would not want to have to go out in the “free” market and pay the entire tab myself (if I could get it). But I bet UAW workers don’t fork over that kind of money for their health care. Until they do, they’ll get no sympathy from me.
Oh, and as for the Mayor. Typical politician. Tries to avoid a direct question and then gets irritated when he’s called on it. He’s too busy blaming someone else for the current situation – that’s fine. It’s not the UAW’s fault, it’s “Wall Street.” Meanwhile, GM and Chrysler will go down the drain and everyone will be out of a job. I hate to tell you, but if we are going to get out of this mess, “Wall Street” must play a role and be a part of the solution. Were the Big-3 mismanaged? Yes. Was management over paid? Absolutely. But did the UAW help push them over the edge? Excessive contracts certainly played a role.
The politicians should stop pointing fingers and trying to place blame. If anyone broke the law, let the prosecutors do their job. The priority for our so-called leaders should be fixing the problem. If Bernie Madoff should go to jail (and he should), leave his prosecution up to the attorneys. Right now I’m more concerned about fixing the holes in the regulatory system that allowed him to operate his little Ponzi scheme from 1992 (yes 1992) until 2008 with basically no oversight.
Maybe if Congress had spent more time minding the store and less time conducting hearings on steroids in baseball they could have headed off some of this mess.