Unions played part in auto crisis

As a former Michigan resident, long before anyone else even caught a whiff of an economic recession, we had long been in one. The reason: The auto industry left thousands of Michiganders jobless. Michigan is (was) the home to many automobile manufacturers like Ford, GM, even now, Toyota. Years ago Ford and GM packed their bags and moved overseas with the blessings of the Republican party and armed with tax incentives. Some liberals do like to blame the loss of American jobs on those Republican incentives. But why is labor so expensive in Michigan? Unions. Because someone thought it would be a good idea to pay $20 per hour plus benefits to a person with a high school education to push a button on an assembly line over and over again. Meanwhile, I, armed with a bachelor's degree, am stuck with $30,000 in student loans and don't make nearly that much. The cost of that labor has now driven up the cost of automobiles and now no one can afford to buy. Unions have their uses, mostly in the Industrial Era when women and children were locked in textile factories with no windows or bathroom breaks. We don't live there anymore. In this case it's trickle down, and if you redistribute the wealth to the very bottom, the top ends up falling over.

Callie Melton

Waukegan