What a Real Auto Industry Looks Like

As President Bush throws a leaden lifeline to the so-called Big Three auto makers, it's worth contemplating what a real automotive industry in America looks like.

Fred Barnes wrote an informative piece in the Weekly Standard about "The Other American Auto Industry", that is the foreign-owned auto plants strung throughout the southern states. Workers are making good money, communities are growing, and decent cars are being made. And it's all being done without unions.

The donkeys are irate about the shoot down of their auto bailout because they missed an opportunity to nationalize yet another portion of the American economy. They blame the GOP Senators from the South for doing it, saying that it's just good old fashioned UAW-busting.

Well, they're right. After all, look at the situation. 2008 is likely to be the last year that General Motors and Chrysler will exist in their current state as independent companies. Tens of thousands of workers in Michigan and other states stand to lose their jobs or face significant cuts in pay and pensions. Doesn't seem like the United Auto Workers has done them much good. In fact, the case could be made that the UAW has a role in the current predicament of our domestic auto industry.