<HTML> Dear Doug and the Left Business Observers, The $44 dollar an hour quote is typical corporate propaganda.  The corporate flacks take the total wage and benefit package along with anything else they can think of and come up with a number like 44.  If it wasn't wiring harnesses it would be trim installers.  All people have their little contribution to make to the finished product. All people that is except those who make no contribution to production---like corporate flacks, anti-human human resources people, anti-labor law firms and other parasites on the productive. On the subject of how cars are marketed, which you touched on in you last issue of LBO, why have independent dealers at all?  Hey, I wouldn't mind having a brand new loaded Buick Century for maybe 10 grand.  Just cut out the middle man and scale back on advertising a little and who knows, maybe 8 grand and GM still makes the big bucks. Fraternally, Tom Doug Henwood wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>I know the righteous thing to do is to support the Flint strikers, but there was a comment in one of the papers the other day from a Wall Street analyst who said something like, "In this world you can't sustain $44 an hour jobs assembling wire harnesses." Really, how can you? Doug</BLOCKQUOTE>  </HTML>