Reply #7: "They came from disenfranchised workers"

[question everything]

and this is the point.

As a professional I have never considered myself disenfranchised, neither were the engineers and the software programmers, the sales and marketing people that were my co-workers. But at some point the corporation decided to change direction, or it the industry was at the bottom of the cycle, or the same functions were performed better in the south or off shores, and we were "let go."

Yes, Union started to protect the jobs of the disenfranchised against the monolith of big corporations in a manufacturing background.

But times have changed. Our economy is 2/3 service based and no one has job security any more, not even CEOs (though they do have their golden parachutes). Most states allows employers to fire someone at will, for no cause, not to mention someone who smokes in private.. can over weight and eating red meat be far behind?

The American car industry is facing serious challenges. Personally we have been keeping our cars for more than 10 years, so American cars were not in our household, though I tried, in 1979 at the height of that gas shortage.

Many industries have come and gone, adjusted. Travel agencies come to mind right now, for example.

So why should employees of GM and Ford be the only ones in the country with guaranteed job security, decent retirement and health care benefits?

I have to wonder how many of GM employees support universal health plan seeing that what they have had was pretty good. How many would support dignified retirement and access to health care to all of us.