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Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
15589 messages, Last post on Jul 01, 2009 at 7:44 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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but still Wal*Mart is the evil enemy? Umm...how can you avoid Chinese-made products anymore, anyway? Might as well join 'em if ya can't beat 'em, eh? Word is it that unionization is starting to spread in to hospitals in southern Arizona. Yikes, the worker telling me this had to see my jaw drop down, but our "right to work state" of AZ is changing a bit. Seems the lowly hospital worker is tired of being pushed around and wants "representation" with worker-employer issues and wants unionization. News about dues...and well-represented hospital workers. Now that's progressive! Great news. 
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Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Jan 10, 2009 9:35 am) Great stuff! Regards, OW |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 09, 2009 8:55 pm) Can't buy it. All I see is a bunch of dirty hippies with their ripped and faded blue jeans, long hair, love beads, peace signs, tie-dye shirts, and granny glasses! They drive around in their VW buses and smoking pot and listening to their Beatles albums! I see mass suicide when reality sets in. 
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Replying to: lemko (Jan 10, 2009 11:29 am) I guess you are right. That is where we got those hippies Bill and Hillary Clinton. Oh, and Obama's buddy Ayers was big during that time. I worked through the period, and did not know about Woodstock for months after it happened. The UAW was at their peek membership. Most of them are now retired wondering how much longer GM will carry them. I think It is worse now. I walk into a place and see someone covered with tattoos, spiked hair and piercings and I turn around and walk out. I still have not gotten over men with ear rings. |
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I'm with you on the earrings thing for men. Who decided that this was a desirable look for dudes, anyway? It seems the rock-n-rap stars would participate no matter what the temperature, but when MJ and all the significant athletes had to chime in I knew we were in for a long barf-bag ride with that idea.
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Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Jan 10, 2009 12:59 pm) Talk like a pirate day isn't until September. State of the auto industry from a union perspective (taxes, trade policy, health care and energy) : Did the Four Horsemen destroy the auto industry? (Delaware County Daily Times) |
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Replying to: steve_ (Jan 10, 2009 1:22 pm)  Yep, keep them perky high-quality cars off our soil. Force everyone here to buy higher priced/less desireable US made cars.  The best is force the transplants to use domestic parts(the same junk used in my Yukon Denali that keep failing) instead of the good parts produced elsewhere. When all cars/parts are made through robotics to get the highest quality and the US has not been at the forefront to get this achieved first, good-bye industry. You can tax and manipulate all you want but if the product is not competitive and does not sell, oh well.... HIT THE ROAD, JACK! Regards, OW |
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Replying to: steve_ (Jan 10, 2009 1:22 pm) Is he trying to explain why many wealthy car buyers would rather spend $55K or more on a 5-series BMW or E-class Mercedes than $45K on a Cadillac? I don't get it. Every so often, someone will suggest that the U.S. adopt its own VAT - either to raise more revenue or to reduce reliance on the income tax. But anyone who pays attention to tax policy here knows that the states are fiercely protective of their power to levy sales taxes & will never willingly share that with the Federal government. I'd also like to see Mr. Galley cite a source for his assertion that the Japanese manipulate the yen to give their auto exports a big cost advantage.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 09, 2009 9:22 pm) By Ben Furnas | January 8, 2009 Introduction 2009 presents a rare opportunity for health care reformers to achieve their goals of affordable, accessible, and effective health care for all. American families and businesses are ready for sweeping changes after years of skyrocketing costs, increasing numbers of uninsured, and inconsistent quality of care. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to make health care a top priority, and congressional majorities are eager to pass reform. Fifteen years ago, the United States had a similar opportunity to reform health care. But conservatives and insurance industry lobbyists defeated Bill Clinton's efforts by claiming the plan would "socialize medicine," and arguing that there was "no health care crisis." Today, their successors are making the very same arguments against Barack Obama's plan. If opponents of reform succeed, the next 15 years are likely to resemble the last 15. The result is predictable: higher and higher costs for a health care system that leaves out more and more people. Like today, businesses will be burdened with spiraling costs, states will spend more for safety nets for high-risk populations and the uninsured, and the whole system will encourage excessive and unnecessary spending while leaving millions behind. Looking back at the last 15 years, we can assess the quality of the American health care system and how we got here. Examining the consequences of the 1994 failure to reform health care should be a stark warning for those who would once again choose to continue our deeply flawed health care system. Rising costs Since 1994, the cost per person of American health care has more than doubled, with an annual growth rate regularly more than twice that of inflation. Fueled by rising costs of prescription drugs, inefficient outpatient care, expensive and unnecessary medical procedures, and ballooning insurance premiums, these costs are a burden on state and federal governments, businesses, and families. Per-person health care expenditures in the United States have risen 6.5 percent per year since 2000, and 5.5 percent per year on average since 1994. In contrast, consumer inflation has averaged just 2.6 percent per year. Health care costs burden American employers, who are forced to cut back on providing coverage and benefits or suffer a competitive disadvantage against international companies who don't bear health costs. Premiums for employer-provided health care have doubled since 2000 (the earliest year the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey has on record). That year the average family premium was $6,800. By 2008, it had risen to $12,700. This premium growth eats away at wages and pressures firms to reduce coverage. The share of American firms offering health benefits shrank to 60 percent today, from 66 percent in 1999. And the percentage of Americans covered through their employers, where coverage is of a much higher quality than in the individual market, was 59 percent in 2007, down from 64 percent in 1999. Without workplace health insurance, Americans must struggle to find coverage in the unregulated private market (where people with pre-existing conditions find it difficult or impossible to secure coverage), go on public assistance, or become uninsured. Our productive capacity is suffering, too. The United States spent approximately 16 percent of its 2006 gross domestic product on health care, up from 8 percent in 1975. Without reform, the Congressional Budget Office projects that health expenditures will rise to 25 percent of GDP by 2025. Health care spending among other rich, developed countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development averaged just 9 percent of GDP in 2006. These costs are increasingly painful for American families, who face higher premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer expenditure data, the share of household income spent on medical expenses has crept up since 1994. A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund found that, "accelerated growth in health care spending has translated into increased burdens on family budgets." According to the most recent data, an average of 13 million families (11 percent of American families) spent 10 percent or more on out-of-pocket health care expenses in 2000-01. That's up from 8 percent in 1996-97. American spending on health care is wildly out of sync with other large developed economies. A recent McKinsey study found that the United States spent $650 billion more on health care than peer OECD countries even after adjusting for wealth. Americans spend well over twice as much as the OECD median in annual per-person health care expenditures, and around 150 percent of the next highest-spending country. In 2006 (the most recent data available), the United States spent $6,700 per capita on health care, over double the OECD median expenditure of $3,100. Norway, the second biggest spender, spent $4,500 per person. Higher medical costs are also taking a toll on America's fiscal health. As the CBO has warned, "the rate at which health care spending grows relative to the economy is the most important determinant of the country's long-term fiscal balance." Federal health care expenditures, including Medicare and Medicaid, have risen to over $800 billion, or $2,650 per person, in 2008, from $300 billion, or $1,600 per person, in 1994 (in constant 2008 dollars). The burden on states has increased as well, to $300 billion in health care costs in 2008, from $190 billion in 1994 (including each state's share of the Medicaid program). These trends are projected to speed up, with per-person federal expenditure nearing $6,000 by 2017 and state and local expenditures projected to increase to $2,000 per-person (in 2008 dollars) over the same period. While some of this increase is attributable to population growth, an aging population, and changes to the policy structures of Medicare and Medicaid (including an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program), much of it comes from the underlying inefficiencies and excess costs of the American health care system. Vanishing coverage Despite surging expenditures, the number of Americans going without insurance has risen to 46 million, or 15 percent of the population in 2007, up from 38 million, or 14 percent, in 1999. Among people aged 18-65, the uninsurance rate increased to almost 20 percent in 2007, up from 17 percent in 1999. If the 1999 rate had stayed constant, 4.5 million more American adults would have health insurance today. In 36 states, the percentage of adults aged 18-65 going without health insurance has increased since 1999. Millions more are living with subpar or insufficient coverage. The Commonwealth Fund found that in 2007 there we
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Replying to: lumoy (Jan 10, 2009 2:46 pm) All he is doing is pointing out what we all know. He gives no practical solutions to rising health care cost. There is no way that a government run health care will cut costs. A close examination of the rampant fraud in Medicare/Medicaid should make that clear. So how would you bring those costs down? How would you cut the malpractice insurance premiums down to a reasonable level? I have heard of certain specialties like OBGYN that pay more in Malpractice than the doctor nets per year. Drugs could be cut way back by people using generics. My wife's prescriptions from Kaiser are all generic. Costs her $5 copay for as much as 90 days of prescription. Every time tort reform is mentioned the Congress quickly shut that door as they are all attorneys and may end up back out on the road chasing ambulances. As I gave you data we have over 10 times the facilities per person that Canada has. For just twice the price. That makes me wonder where all the money is going in Canada. Do you think we should get rid of 8000 MRI machines so we have the same coverage as Canada. Give us some solutions. If you do not want to pay your own health care. That means you expect the government to pay the premiums without raising your taxes. How do you suppose that will work? The money has to come from somewhere. We are running out of ink with all the funny money being printed. PS If you are holding your breath until they squeeze the money out of the fat cats like Bill Gates, Buffett or Oprah. You are going to die from lack of oxygen. The rich have never given up their money in the history of the country. They are not going to start now. |
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