Auto workers to pay for Big Three bailout

Friedman, a prominent voice of the American liberal establishment, attributes the near-bankruptcy of the Big Three auto companies—General Motors, Ford and Chrysler—to "the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts." It is against the last item on his list that his ire is particularly directed.

GM's health care costs, i.e., the already diminished benefits that help millions of active and retired workers and their family members defray soaring medical costs, are "outrageous," he declares. He then writes: "But if we are going to use taxpayer money to rescue Detroit, then it should be done along the lines proposed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday by Paul Ingrassia, a former Detroit bureau chief for that paper."

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http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/pers-n13.shtml