A Very Good Question
by cactus
A Very Good Question
You don’t even have to get past the headline and byline to read an excellent question posed by David Lazarus in the LA Times:
Why were Wall Street workers not asked for concessions?
He goes on:
Say what you will about the role of the union in exacerbating Detroit’s financial troubles, one thing stands out: Blue-collar workers are taking it in the shorts as part of their employers’ efforts to secure some bailout bucks from Uncle Sam.
I don’t recall white-collar workers on Wall Street stepping up with similar concessions in return for their companies’ receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer cash.
“There is absolutely no excuse for a bailout without significant sacrifices by all stakeholders,” said Robert Reich, who served as Labor secretary under President Clinton and is now a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley.
“We should be making everyone on Wall Street jump through hoops, not just the automakers.”
He notes:
Of course, jobs are being cut and bonuses lost throughout the financial world, but that’s more a response to the crisis than an offer from workers to help.
And the question, one more time for good measure:
So why are we holding blue-collar workers to a different standard than their white-collar kin?
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by cactus
Rdan here: Barney, are you listening?