Toon: The Brighter Side of Auto Layoffs

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Drew this the evening that Obama announced his restructuring plan for GM and Chrysler. It was a tough one, because I really did appreciate that Obama wasn't buying into all the anti-union and anti-worker rhetoric that swirls around stories about the demise of the auto industry ("how dare those workers demand fair wages! they're runing America!" etc!)

So I really did debate whether the woman on the right should say that Obama "won't" or "can't" do anything to save the jobs of the auto workers. I started out with "can't", but that made it seem like Obama was somehow helpless and had no power to help workers even if he wanted to. I settled on "won't", because in the end, this situation just sucks for the workers. Rick Wagoner gets a $20 million pension, and they get... crap.

Except maybe a visit from the newly appointed Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers.

P.S. See also Kevin Moore's cartoon on this subject, "Lossy Compensation."

Story Time With Senator Shelby!

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I drew this last week when the bailout was expected to fail and the lead advocate of that failure was Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama--home to plants for several foreign auto makers.

So yeah, I do support an auto bailout, if it actually involves a radical retooling of what the domestic auto makers make and do. Sure, the leaders of the Big Three are a bunch of morons, but why should so many millions of workers have to suffer for their sins? And stop blaming the unions! Grrr!!!

The New Green Hummer

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Seriously, GM actually unveiled a new "green" HUMMER at the Detroit auto show. But a little ethanol usage does not an environmentally friendly monster SUV make. We've got to rethink transportation on a much deeper level than that.