Dear Mr. Berko: I think this $750 billion giveaway program is foolish. In fact, I find it hard to believe that the government is going to give the Big Three automakers $50 billion to pay assembly line workers $125,000 or more a year to make cars that get 13 miles per gallon. Have we lost our common sense? Is our government dense? Are we living in a new socialist regime? Or all of the above? I'm part of a group of small-business men who meet once a month to exchange ideas. This was the topic of last night's meeting and everyone at the meeting thought that this give-away program is nuts. I was elected to write and ask if you had any better solutions. We've all been reading your column for more than 20 years and you usually have some real good ideas. - R.S., Oklahoma City.

Dear R.S.: I find it incredible that the government is going to give General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler a $25 billion bailout package so they can continue paying workers an average of $81.16 an hour in wages and benefits to make vehicles that get 13 mpg. That's $168,000 a year, according to a September 2006 article in the Wall Street Journal. This corporate welfare also pays $43,000 or so to laid-off union workers who get 90 percent of their salaries to clock in at various United Auto Workers union assembly halls for eight hours a day to play gin rummy or pinochle.

Those enormous benefits are a result of union power gone wild and add about $1,750 to the cost of every car produced by the Big Three. Meanwhile, Toyota, with 13 non-union assembly plants in the U.S., pays an average hourly labor cost, with benefits, of $46 per hour. This lower labor cost means that Toyota has about a $1,100 per car cost advantage over GM, Ford or Chrysler.

These unions, who also decimated the airline industry, are just as greedy as the Wall Street brokerages that helped bring the economy to its knees. The executives at the Big Three as well as the airline industry are equally to blame because they just shrugged their shoulders knowing they could pass on the increased costs to the consumer. The automobile consumer got inefficient engines, lousy service and cars that would fall apart in four years. The airline consumers got incredibly small seats and late arrival and departure times.

I believe GM and Ford will survive and that Chrysler should be absorbed (resistance is futile) into GM. Those favoring the bailout believe that government action will save about 100,000 jobs. They know that a government bailout would also preserve $42 billion of debt owned by auto industry bondholders, of which $33 billion is due in five years. They also know it will preserve $8 billion of preferred stock owned by auto industry investors.

So when the Treasury Department dumps this $25 billion of largess on the Big Three, it gives financial comfort to the holders of U.S. auto industry bonds and preferred stock. Well, "hells bells and the deal smells," I don't give a fink or fudge about the Big Three's debt holders, nor do most Americans. The stockholders are, for all intents and purposes, wiped out. So we'd all be better off if GM, Ford and Chrysler declared bankruptcy.

The Big Three would still make all kinds of cars. But they would be able to rid themselves of those myriad and costly union work rules, hire labor at half the cost and shutter unprofitable plants. They could retool to make efficient engines and easily become cost competitive with Toyota. Only redundant employees would lose their jobs. The transition to bankruptcy could be as seamless as pouring water into a glass that's only half-full.

Last but not least, the Treasury Department would save $25 billion in the process and would not have to add billions to our national debt, which just reached $10.5 trillion.

However, if the government gives $25 billion to the Big Three, I think U.S. auto industry management, UAW big shots, local union officials and their pension fund should guarantee the loan and be on the hook if the money is not repaid. I know that you and I will be signing that note in absentia, and so will our children and grandchildren.

I think Americans would want the people who run and work at the Big Three to be on the hook with them. If those big shots were personally on the note, I can almost guarantee that within a short period of time the automobile industry would be successful again.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, FL 33429 or e-mail him at malber@comcast.net. To find out more about Malcolm Berko and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

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