Off topic:

I just saw an interesting article titled “Siphoning G.M.’s Future”, refer to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/opinion/10lowenstein.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Note that the article is from the New York Times so one should not have high expectations.. The article describes one of the main reasons for GM being uncompetitive is the high pensions it must payout to retired UAW workers. This is a familiar story, i.e. an initially huge company agreeing to a generous pension program that was forced upon it by a powerful union, slowly dies as the work force ages and retires.

Now again, this article comes from the MSM. Here’s the interesting quote:

“Walter Reuther, the [UAW] union’s captain, would have preferred that the government provide pensions and health care to all citizens. He urged the automakers to “go down to Washington and fight with us” for federal benefits…. The sorry decline of General Motors has proved Reuther right: the government is the better provider of social insurance. Let industry worry about selling products.”

The (apparent?) blindness of this MSM journalist amazes me. He is advocating that the same process (socialized medical insurace and pension plans) which is killing (or killed) America’s former greatest corporations should be implemented nation wide. I guess the crypto-Marxist attitude is: If it worked against General Motors then it’ll probably work against the U.S. government.