Good For Government Motors, Not So Good For American Workers
June 11, 2010 at 09:29 AM EDT
Today Bloomberg reported that General Motors and Ford are taking steps to move more vehicle production to Mexico. The reasons are not complicated: At around $4 an hour, Mexican workers cost a fraction of what U.S. auto workers expect, unionized or not. Of course the complicating factor here is that GM still exists only because we, the taxpayers, bailed it out at enormous expense over the last two years. We did this ostensibly to save American jobs. Not coincidentally, the U.S. government expects to soon spin off its 61% ownership stake in GM. With the political pressure off, the again-independent company will be free to maximize its profits by outsourcing its operations elsewhere. Exactly who has been helped by this giant financial fire drill? We aren’t quite sure. The Russell…