Well supply of vehicles also improved. The strike will surely affect all automakers and consumers due to supply constraints. The Ford buyer will go for a Toyota if they cant get a Ford. That means less supply for the Toyota buyer that wants a Toyota and that will lead to gouging.

 

Exactly…people see the tip of the iceberg but not everything beneath the water. Executives are paid what the market dictates they are worth. These are very talented and experienced people, and the investment of oneself and their energy and focus is tremendous. I’m not a “high level executive” but I own businesses that employ people, and the focus and sacrifice it takes to achieve that level of success and the responsibility you feel for the business and those who depend on it is tremendous.

 

UAW wants all the perks without any risk. I'd offer them performance based compensation if they refuse then no deal.

 

Then it becomes skilled based and we can't have that, equality is bad.

 

Of course it matters. But we live in an imperfect world. There are some things that can be realistically addressed, and some that cannot. Strikes can only accomplish that which is humanly possible. It is not possible, right now at least, to change the economy of the entire planet and eliminate all sources of labor-abuse.

 

One of the main problems is not what workers make, but what high-level management makes. Today's major-company CEOs make obscene salaries and perks....particularly compared to the difference between average worker and executive salaries decades ago. That is true not only in the auto industry but in a number of other industries as well. To (some) extent, we're seeing a repeat of the late 19th-Century/early-20th-century "Robber-Baron" era....Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, etc.....when a few super-wealthy major tycoons controlled most of American industry.

 

Unless they are breaking laws there is nothing stopping CEOs from paying themselves whatever they want. If you don't like this then start a company, take on the risk and pay yourself what you think is fair.
In other words we need unions to squeeze as much as possible out of these companies because the CEOs are evil. Just come out and say it. BTW not all CEOs take obscene salaries some only take performance based pay. One of the most famous does this but is a person you despise and think is a fraud.

 

These things have nothing to do with each other. Its all about wages and attracting talent. In the upper management area they set compensation based on the market so that they can attract talent. Companies don't love paying executives any more than they love paying labor. Its a fallacy that if companies didn't pay top executive talent what they do that they could instead pay workers more, its all dictated by the market.

Say what you will about Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Carnegie etc these people shaped the country into what it is now. We need visionaries and incredible businesspeople to move companies forward also.

 

LOL. Ever hear of a word called "greed"?

Well, when GM and Chrysler were on the verge of bankruptcy 15 years ago, they squeezed the unions as much as they could.

 

You can't compare it to the average worker. Compare it to revenue, what next are you going to want small business owners to earn less since vs their employees they take in FAR more of the revenue than ANY CEO?

Am I evil for not hiring anyone since it would cut into my pay? Should I screw myself hiring others and changing my company structure just so I can produce 2-4 more jobs?

Have you ever ran an operation of any size yourself? It's way more of a pain in the *** than media would have you think, sometimes I wonder if it's worth it vs just clocking in.

 

Are we fans of redistributing wealth now?!

 

You buy products from a company that pays their CEO ridiculous amounts of money. Same company that isn't even in the top 10 American made index profits and jobs are being shipped out. Same company that cost taxpayers billions when they went under.
Good. Too bad they didn't squeeze them right out of existence we'd all be much better off.

 

Not necessarily, but who makes most of that wealth possible for the auto companies? Robots or no robots, vehicles don't assemble themselves,

 

The company would die nearly instantly if you have a line worker try and do regional distribution or accounts management. Better and more capable people earn more. Period.

Again the CEOs being paid even 5% of revenue is meaningless and doesn't matter vs payroll of the vast majority of workers. Plus they are making LESS than any small company owner would so that would make them less evil especially when you consider what they enable to exist.

 

Quite frankly? The business leaders that chart the course for the company, design the products the company sells, and position the company for success are the ones who make that wealth possible. Assembling what they sell is not even close to what makes companies successful. Many people all over the world are available and capable of assembling vehicles, but there aren't a ton of people who are capable of doing those things I mentioned, those people don't come around every day and thats why they are paid so well.

Thats like saying the person who is responsible for my success selling houses is the guy that puts the sign in the ground.