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?