American Breadlines and the Big Three

I didn’t watch the infomercial but have had this thought a lot lately though less about Senator Obama and more about some of the things coming from others on the left.

From Mark Hemingway at the Corner:

Whatever our problems are right now, America is not one big breadline. To be fair, all politicians exploit these anecdotal cases but I think Obama's special really pushed the boundaries of my bile duct here.

Just as one particular example, I was struck by the guy at the Ford plant; it noted that his father and grandfather had worked at Ford and retired with full benefits. And now he's only paid to work every other week. Is he suffering currently because of the state of the economy and George Bush's economic policies, or because his dad and grandad's union extracted exorbitant benefits and retirement packages that mean Ford is now saddled with crushing financial obligations?

I've heard it said that with GM, at least, something like $1000-$2000 of each vehicles price goes to the benefits of GM retirees. As for the "extraction" of "exhorbitant benefits" by the unions, the big three are as equally to blame. The writing has been on that wall for much longer that the subprime grafitti.