The whole trouble with bailout this, bailout that, is that it doesn't really work. Yeah the banks need short term capital to stay solvent, but they need to be audited to a one because you don't get leveraged 47x your cash reserves over night. Actual businesses that make things are in worse shape, the Big 3 American auto makers are going down the tubes because of two factors, due to government intervention, they can't make cars people want to buy, unlike the foreign auto makers like Toyota. You don't make money if you don't sell what people want to buy and, in the rare case where there is a car/truck that people like, they can't sell competitively because they have a ridiculous amt of overhead thanks to the UAW. I read something one time that suggested that 40% of the cost of a Ford F-150 pickup truck goes to pay the union.
There's something wrong with your business model when your line workers are making $85 an hour and striking if you don't give them a raise, meanwhile, unaffiliated factories in the southern states make a comparable model of truck that costs less. They aren't unionized. They're employee's make a fair wage and live comfortably for the most part. Something like $35 or $40 an hour.
Bear in mind that while some specialized training is needed, line work is hardly what could be considered "skilled" labor. Not like, say, an electrician or an architect or something.
Lastly, I'm wailing on the UAW to be sure, but they're not the only one's to blame, the executives at The Big 3 signed the stupid contracts. Contracts that created a work pool, where unneeded line workers go and sit in a room making full wage, waiting for a new posting to become available. BTW, they are fully allowed to decline the offer and continue to wait in the pool.
