MORE THOUGHTS ON TALK OF AN AUTO BAILOUT:

Here’s a stat from my friend, blogger Mark Perry: Total compensation per hour for the big-three carmakers is $73.20. That’s a 52 percent differential from Toyota’s (Detroit South) $48 compensation (wages + health and retirement benefits). In fact, the oversized UAW-driven pay package for Detroit is 132 percent higher than that of the entire manufacturing sector of the U.S., which comes in at $31.59.

I don’t care how much money Congress throws at GM. With that kind of oversized comp-package they are not gonna be competitive.

Yes, they should be forced to drop compensation to the level of the successful foreign auto-manufacturing businesses in America.

UPDATE: Would it help things to accelerate this UAW concession agreement, which isn’t supposed to start until 2010? It’s a start, anyway. (Thanks to reader Will Brantingham for the link).