The Economy

He’s also the guy who started the whole “millennials could buy a house if they wouldn’t eat avocado toast” crap.

 

So UAW authorizes a strike against the big three. But only one plant for each manufacturer has a walkout happening right now. Interesting strategy.

 

And of course the one Ford plant is the plant I need up and running to buy a new truck. Looks like my decision between a '24 Ranger and Tacoma just got easier.

 

Probably a good strategy.While I support the UAW as a person who was raised in a family of autoworkers and benefitted greatly over generations from Generous Motors, the public’s appetite for another supply chain disaster is zero right now.

We’re in precarious enough economic situation where one thing over could wreck this soft landing the Fed is trying to maneuver. I think even union leadership recognizes this. They’re going to give it every chance to get a better deal without taking the full blame of a meltdown.

Also, we just aren’t going to need as many autoworkers in an EV environment. It’s a tough truth. Striking UAW Can’t Bring Back the 1950s or Wish EVs Away

 

That's not the issue for the UAW. They have nothing against EVs. They just want to make sure the guys making them earn as much as guys making IC cars.

 

There are thousands of fewer parts in an EV. I worked on an engine line that had 500ish workers that was pared down to a battery line that uses fewer than 100. My dad worked in a factory for 45 years that built…fuel lines.

This will be a shrinking jobforce.

I’m all for it, but we need to recognize the pain that is coming and plan for it.

 

I seriously doubt the majority of Americans have any real sympathy for the plight of the UAW or Big 3.

As noted, I'm in the market for a new truck, and they are messing up those prospects. Also, I own a good bit of Ford stock, so I'd just as soon not see my portfolio harmed.

 

No worries, because this has happened in every manufacturing industry since the invention of the steam engine. So, there must be any number of time-tested plans that take care of workers whose jobs were obsoleted. Right?

Right?

 

Sure is -- they're going to move to Hollywood and become screenwriters.

 

As a former sportswriter, I can wholeheartedly say that yes, there are time-tested ways to improve your life once your job has turned obsolete.

 

There’s an opportunity for a Taylor Swift reporter in Nashville.

 

Newspapers never had factories that employed 10,000 people in one building. We’re talking completely different scale. This is more akin to the death of mining communities.

Which we handled…terribly.

“Get on your grindset and replace that job that actually makes a product with an office job that produces no actual product! in the 110 degrees and $3,000 a month rent of the Sun Belt!” is not a workable plan for 5,000 people in Toledo, Ohio.

All our grindset shitheads already moved to Florida 30 years ago (Hi all my relatives!) and the Carolinas in the 2000s. Now we have to actually deal with the situation here as it is and not flee.