Giants Change Slowly, But They Do Change

It may be the home of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, but it's a sad day in Doraville, along with many other towns that will be losing GM plants. With the announcement in the last day of huge layoffs at GM, the writing is on the wall for the dominant American auto manufacturer, and a way of life my grandparents and parents knew, but we and our children will not. We created a nation where ordinary workers could know a life better than any working-class man ever had, but the invisible hand would not be denied in the long run, because the cost of labor would eventually increase to the point that the company would eventually be unable to compete. While GM workers are still very productive, the workforce was increasingly burdened with the "legacy costs" of providing health care to retirees promised years ago. So much so that $1500.00 of every car GM sells goes just to this cost. When I was a child half the new cars sold in the US were GM cars, but now it less than a quarter. Displaced union workers have excoriated corporations that took advantage of cheap labor overseas, as if they themselves had a divine right to those jobs. They don't, nobody does. The corporation exists only to make a profit for its owners, period. End of story. If a worker gets a full career there, great. If not, just move on. For many years, this same cycle has gone on, and one by one, the dinosaurs have fallen. So now we are finally reaching the biggest of dinosaurs. The writing is on the wall.