if you read this blog at all regularly youve noticed by now that i get much of my news from the Detroit Free Press and that i care about Michigan and Detroit a lot. well lately there has been a lot of union bashing in the forums at Freep.com. people are throwing around words like corrupt, greedy, lazy like the Lions throw games. so i want to pause and take a look at whats at work here.

last night as i was making my way home NPR had and economics professor from Berekely on, and he made some damn good points. (i would provide citations here, but i was driving and i couldnt find it online) its like the guy took all the thoughts that were bouncing through my head and tied them together into a complete coherant thought and argument. im glad he did, becuase by the time that i got it together... well, we'd be waiting a long time.

heres the gist. slashing wages isnt good for the economy. when Henry Ford started paying $5 a day people flocked to Detroit, made good money, bought cars, homes, and other goods. the producers of those goods made money which they used to buy similar things. the economy grows. so you cut a guys wages, he buys less, the economy shrinks, you lose buisiness, you cut his wages more, he defaults on his mortgage, the ecnomy slips more, you lose more business, you lay him off, he stops spending entirely, the economy grinds into recession that only massive government spanding can counteract.

slashing wages and jobs is tempting in the short term to save money, but takes a toll on the larger economy as a whole. but this quickly turns into a chicken vs egg argument. if your bottom line slips and your company is in the red, how do you not save money but taking these types of actions? someone has to take the brave step forward to help grow the economy as Ford did a hundred years ago.

if you follow in his foot steps you find a population with money to spend, and they just might spend it on your goods and services. at any rate more money in the economy means more money for you, assuming that you offer something that the public wants. so the Senate didnt have the forsight last week to come through and do the right thing for millions of workers, but today President Bush, oddly enough, became Detroit's best friend. unfortunately part of the conditions on the money he offered to GM and Chrysler was a requirement to restructure the UAW contracts reached a year ago that would bring UAW wages in line with foreign competitors' domestic wages. while they are not poverty wages, and people can and do live one them, and opportunity was missed.

our leaders missed a great opportunity to stimulate the economy in a meaningful way. by extending the loans to GM and Chrysler and allowing the current UAW agreement to stay in place meant stabilizing millions of jobs. that means stabilizion millions of homes, mortgages, and spending patterns. that would ensure steady spending from those millions of households as so much of America's economy teeters. higher wages mean more money to spend, which means more spending, which means a more robust economy, which means more competition, competitive wages, high quality goods and services, and prosperity. hooray!

the highly vilified unions have played an important role in the equation which i may have glazed over. in times, like now, when management may want to cut pay, the union is there to make sure that workers are making the money they need to participate in the economy. im sure some unions, perhaps all, have at times become greedy. but the recent UAW contracts were seen as a victory by management and the workers alike as an agreement that can bring American manufacturing to a competitve price point in comparison to their overseas rivals while allowing prosperity for the people with tools in their hands. those people need to be able to buy the cars that they make in order for the company to survive.

sure it may have started with Henry Ford seeing decades into the future, but the UAW came along to keep the workers' long view at the forefront of contract negotiations. we can all thank Mr Ford and the UAW for our 5 day work weeks, benefits like paid holidays, health care, workers' comp, and a paycheck that allows us to have a car in the drive way, a meal on the table, and a week at the lake in the summer. and like anything else, the UAW must grow, change, evolve, or it will die. to write it off as the cause of the ecnomy's woes is shortsighted and misplacing the real causes of the economic mess(which are various and sundry).

i hope that Obama might work with congress to get a better deal passed early in the new year and the the union and GM and Ford and Chrysler will make it to the next decade as the pilars of American industry as they have been for all of our lifetime's. being from Detroit, i may be a bit sentimental, but we really need to work a way through this that benefits all involved. i must give Debbie Stabenow credit for taking issue with this early on and setting some of Obama's agenda for him.

my home state cant take much more bad news. the heartland's plight will reach the coasts if its allowed to do so. we as a country need to act. we need to solve this crisis, America as we know it depends upon it and i think Detroit is the canary in the coal mine of American industry. the canary is wobbling. we need to get it some air, because if it keels over it doesnt bode well for the rest of us. were all in this together, im pulling for ya.