Over that past week or so, all the news about General Motors (GM) has been about how they recorded a RECORD 8 billion dollars in net income for 2011, and hope to be over 10 billion for 2012.
That is BILLION WITH A B ladies and gentlemen.
As good for GM and their shareholders (not their shareholders who lost everything three years ago of course) as this news is, (Honestly, this is fantastic for some!) GM is a symbol of the American heartland, an institution of American capitalism, receiver of one of the largest "Keynesian" (sorry J.M. Keynes, you will always be blamed for the digging holes and refilling them with government money thing) bailouts in history, employer of many of my family members past and present, the next major story in the news makes it clear that the revenue increase is nothing but the blood of GM workers.
What to make of this?
This must mean that the recession is over right? GM is making a shitload of money for investors as well as the American taxpayer (at least according to every major news outlet).
Until we get to today's news...
Historically General Motors was a great company to be exploited by (comparatively in terms of standard of living.) With nothing more than a high school deploma you could earn a decent living and suppport a family. Part of supporting yourself and your family was being able to retire at a reasonable time (without having to take a job as a greater at Wall Mart to make ends meet). Right after news breaks of record earnings, today we get this:
A destruction of the pension plan at GM.
Of course the conservative New York Times frames it as a "change" not a destruction....
Will we see an increase in profits at GM? Yes........Will it allow the US government to sell the rest of their GM shares at a higher price than otherwise would have been possible? Yes... Is it just another example of the massive increase in the rate of exploitation in this country? Of course.
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