Recently, a supremely ignorant Minister - Iain Duncan Smith - commented on the fact that although there were no jobs in Merthyr Tydfil (Wales) there were jobs an hour away in Cardiff.
Thus speaks a man who has never had to endure a daily two hour commute on public transport for minimum wage.

I'm all for getting people back into work - it's such a boost to self esteem and relieves the economy and all that. But Cardiff itself has 9% unemployment. Even apart from the fact that no employer of sound mind would trust a low-level employee who lived an hour away and depended on public transport, when they have plenty of local applicants. Even apart from the fact that during any period of bad weather, said employee would be sacked for non-attendance, and even in periods of good weather would probably be sacked for poor time keeping because you simply cannot trust bus services...

MPs who live closer to Parliament than Methyr is to Cardiff get SECOND HOME ALLOWANCE AND TRAVEL EXPENSES. Try paying your own travel expenses when you're a waitress in Cardiff. Try getting a bus when your shift finishes at 00.00. Try waiting on an empty street for a bus full of drunks. [Yes, personal experience - in London not Cardiff, when working in the West End]
And above all, try raising a family when you have to leave home well over an hour before your shift starts and get home well over an hour after it finishes. Yes, people do it because needs must, but given that the Tories are supposed to be the party of "family values" I really can't see how they could promote such a strategy.

I am pro-work.
My Mum worked any number of crappy jobs to bring money in.
I, myself, have had three jobs at a time, and as soon as I am employed (still waiting on that damn CRB) I will try to find a second job.
I do not support the idea of people living their whole lives on benefits.
But I do think ignorant public school boys raised by families with money and never having had to struggle to pay bills should get some proper education before shooting their mouths off. And I think they should look at all the policies they are promoting (that of mothers raising children and the importance of the extended family for example) before coming up with arrangements that they would find intolerant in their own lives.

Fire away.

Obama isn't black. He's green. I saw it on CNN this morning.

One drop rule in his mind. He will never acknowledge his white roots other than a passing comment in a speech to win votes from the middle class. He is a study of Alinsky to the tee.

And with it, the price of everything else goes up. Now the oil companies and the futures brokers, have the greenies on their side, the sky's the limit.

Time to fix the economy. Buy a new TV.

Or you can deal with the real problem. Buy ten gallons of gasoline. How many actually move the car? Somewhere between one and two. More than 8 of those 10 gallons does nothing but create heat. Does nothing productive because gasoline at $7 per gallon is so rediculously cheap.

Want to solve the problem? Any car getting less that 30 MPG (the actual numbers) in local driving is a car onwer who wants to burn more gas for his greater glory. Anyone with an engine larger than 4 cyliinders loves screwing everyone for his own ego.

Deal with why more than 8 of every ten gallons is burned to do nothing productive. Otherwise, you (and we all) deserve prices exceeding $10 per gallon. Those who hate innovation are defined in that above paragraph. 'Drill baby drill' is a soundbyte for $10 gasoline. "More Ethanol!" since we so want to make things worse by ignoring the problem.

If gas does go up that much then maybe our auto industry will see the light and either import or produce some of those very efficient diesel engines like the UK has. They have been getting well above 30mpg for years.

Now that low sulfur fuel is available they can, and still meet emissions standards. All those Europeans, even VW and Mercedes, had pulled out of the US market, because they couldn't do it.

And didn't the US auto unions block it as well, for other reasons?

I asked some time ago why 30 mpg is now considered great mileage. My 1990 CRX got about 35, but the HF version got near 50. We're being screwed. They can do better. Somebody's pockets would suffer, methinks, and better ours than "theirs" in their eyes. If gas prices keep going up I don't know what I will do. My VW gets about 30, so it's considered great mileage: I have a 300 mile total commute each week. This is the suxxors.

Why would they do that? That's doesn't make any sense, but if you've got a link to that I'd love to read it.:confused:

I will look. I believe it revolved around the UAW getting language into the bills that regulated what was defined as a "domestic" auto and then taxing those imports that did not meet that standard. Hence the Jap companies among others proceeded to open plants in the US that were located in Right to Work states and not where unions could not dominate. But due to the low price of gas in the US as well as the low standards for mpg efficiency, currently around 27mpg average, I believe, there was no incentive for them to make the same efficient engines that they have in their own countries.

This speaks to some of it but it does reference more in general terms "US Auto industry" rather than direct union offense. I can see from the article how they would have been on the same side of the arguments.

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles...slow-lane.html

This references the UAW some.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/...n3/v32n3-2.pdf

This is a proposal to do direct imports of the complete cars and some of the roadblocks, little to do with the issues surrounding jobs but you could imagine the outcry if we imported significantly more fuel efficient complete autos built by Ford and GM overseas...

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008...ome-good-cars/


Specifically mentions the unions...

http://www.bitbotters.com/47/why-ame...fficient-cars/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...051900550.html

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/635994

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17344368/ns/business-autos/

Yeah, I can see the UAW backing what they see as beneficial to their members, that what they do. At least that's what they should do.

As far as imported parts, that's the manufactures call, like the Big Ford Crown Vics that have dominated the police market. Ford arranged for a high percentage of the parts to be imported so it would be classed as an import and it's gas mileage averaged in with their other imports. Using the rules(law) to their advantage. But that doesn't affect the UAW very much, even if they had a say in the matter.

But like I said up front, keep in mind the UAW is first and foremost in the business of protecting their members, who are paying 2 hours a month. As least it should be... actually the first and foremost is to benefit the rat bastards running the show, then the dues paying members.;)