Speedzzter

Car Allowance Rebate System: Ford Bounces Back

Cash for clunkers is still welfare.

It's laundered bailout money. It's another abandonment of free market principles. It's still borrowing money we don't have to redistribute it to people who haven't earned it. It's still the pillaging and vandalism of thousands of potential collector and parts vehicles built after 1984. It's still a war on V8s and against grassroots motorsports (which depend on the sorts of "clunkers" that Welfare/Beer Bust King Obama, the environmentalists and the greedy public dole sucklings are destroying).

Ford vigorously campaigned for the CARS legislation, so they ARE benefitting from "bailout" money (i.e. Dealers get the CARS welfare vouchers they then spend to help buy the vehicles from Ford -- only the most myopic can't see that this is "bailout" cash to Ford)

A note for ThomasC: It is undisputable that the labor costs (including legacy costs) of the foreign "invader" assembly plants were far below the Detroit 3 before this crisis. How could UAW-assembled vehicles be competitive with "scab" vehicles assembled in "right to work" states for $1,000-$1,500 less per unit?

Regardless of one's position on the value of unions, the UAW clearly did not put the Detroit 3 on a level playing field with the invaders. The UAW failed to unionize the invaders. Nor did the UAW convince the American public to shun non-union "transplant" vehicles.

The invaders thus set the "market price" for assembly labor and benefits. The pre-crisis UAW "pattern" contracts exceeded the market price for assembly labor. Moreover, it's been widely reported that UAW work rules also put the Detroit 3 at a considerable disadvantage to the "Japanese" way. You may not like these facts, but they are the harsh reality.