Despite the UAW’s attempt to do for the South what it has done to Detroit, the South can continue to practice entrepreneurial federalism. Capital is mobile. It goes where it is welcomed and stays where it is well treated, so states compete to create tax and regulatory environments conducive to job creation. Liberals call this a “race to the bottom.” Conservatives call it a race to rationality.
– Breaking the grip of the unions, George F. Will, the Washington Post, Feb. 18
Yup. The decline of the U.S. auto industry was the fault of the UAW, not, say, decisions by top management to deliberately destroy vehicle quality and ignore the clearly growing need for fuel efficiency.
Bring back the Ford Pinto! And the Chevy Vega! We want to compete with those anti-union German companies,* and those employee-hostile Japanese ones!
Elsewhere in that column, Will complains that VW management was quietly assisting the UAW in its organizing efforts. Obviously a plot to undermine VW’s competitiveness.
Seriously? Seriously?
Note to Mr. Will: There is a difference between ideology and fact; ideology does not constitute fact.
What a ridiculous column.
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*Updated to add that link to a Dec. 2011 Forbes article. The article’s title: “How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much.“