Letter to Congress - Don't Short-Change the Workers

(Editor’s note: Gerard Ange of Palo Alto, Calif., passed along to us this note he sent to his Congressional representative. These are excerpts.)

Dear Congresswoman Eshoo,

Today, I heard that the Republicans were trying to derail the Big Three bailout. This is no surprise to me. It is easy to see from this Detroit Industrialist Opera going on, up on Capitol Hill, that this by design is nothing more than an empty-handed act by bad actors to give the appearance that the chief executive officers of those companies are sincerely trying to save their companies.

 I hope that you can see through this thin charade … which is if you hadn't already figured it out ... to intentionally run the Big Three into the ditch so that they kill the unions and pensions. The truth is ... they don't want a bailout! … they want the patient to die on the operating table.

What going on here is a re-enactment of the script that was done with the airlines. Currently we are in the middle of a huge chess match, and if the Republican industrialists are successful with their intention to kill the bailout, that is the nail in the coffin of the middle class.

The economic medicine for this planet is not in quick profit taking but in the principles of long term growth along with strong proven benefits of the wide distribution of wealth to the middle class. Cutting labor and benefits is short-sided, dead end, outdated Stone Age thinking out of the pages of Oliver Twist!

We all know by example what changed America into that country that was at one time  a shining example of opportunity for everyone and not only for opportunity for the few.

To Henry Ford, I give full credit for creating the middle class. In the automobile industry back then, Ford's competitors and other industrialists complained loudly that he paid his employees far too much! But his response was that he wanted his employees to be able to afford to buy his automobiles.

That created a spark! With the higher wages, Ford's employees bought houses and washing machines, and everyone’s living conditions greatly improved. The communities around the Ford plants,  schools, hospitals all grew and benefited everyone.

Today the world sits again ... the Third World starving and underpaid and living far below standard ... waiting for the next Henry Ford to create that next spark. But this time, the benefits will be felt globally. Use the proven business model of Henry Ford on a global level to create a global middle class ... that is the direction we need to go! Sincerely, Gerard Ange

(Mr. Ange is president and CEO of G.A.P. International Inc. live satellite TV productions in Palo Alto.