You appear to already have your mind made up. Does this then mean that you are purely looking for self-affirmation? GM, like many of the other super companies, got fed up with paying extremely high union wages and benefits while seeing a significant drop in both production and quality. They got their lobbyists to push for NAFTA, allowing them to seek other markets that allowed them to save money. Isn't it amazing how it is actually less expensive to export the raw materials, have them assembled, packaged and then import them back into the country than it is to just pay out to the local labor force? The problem you run into then, is that after being allowed that maneuver, the decision makers then went to their board of trustees and said "look how much money we're saving!" patted themselves on the back and were then given huge bonus' for having done so. What SHOULD have happened was that they should have looked at the savings, used it as an advertisement, telling everyone how concerned they were and then reduced the end cost of their product, passing the savings or at least a nice percentage of it on to the customer.
The "Cheap Imports" are no longer imported. They are now made right here. The difference is that the quality is higher and the cost is lower -- non-union labor. The problem there is that they feed the laborers just enough bread crumbs to keep them satified while ultimately, the money goes back to their home country instead of staying here.
Both management and the labor force are guilty of greed and are the root cause of the current economic situation. That both sides of the same coin are in such denial about their culpability goes a long way towards being a barometer as to just how long it will take to get out of this mess.
In my humble estimation, Bush's tax cuts were far better for the country as a whole than is Obama's eagerness to go billions and soon trillions of dollars into debt with no end in sight and no viable means to repay the debt.
I was able to start a business for $5K and now 4 years later, am employing 7 full time, one part time and one seasonal. You do the math. $817 BILLION to create 300 MILLION jobs? If you thought America was drunk on credit during the Bush 43 years, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
