Fun and Games: Cars, Clashes and Unions

It's hard to believe that once more the Mason-Dixon ain't playing the national game but a regional one, and harder still to understand how we haven't learned one thing from the migrating industries that went from the North, with unions, to the South with no-unions, to the East and out of our country altogether.

It was forty years ago, 40. Is that so long ago that folks really can't remember how this regional bias sent the coat manufacturers, fabric manufacturers, clothing manufacturers off-shore and out of sight?

And most recently, the fibres industry, furniture industry and others in the South off our continental map.

Do I remember it because my step father was in the industry?

Do I remember it because of my strong ties to New England?

Or do I just remember it because I know how both New England and North Carolina both suffered for their short-term thinking and poor planning for the future.

It is this greed at any cost that is contributing to the downfall of all our blue industries and creating a job-less market. And now the white colour workers are on the unemployment line with the blues because of the avarice and guile of men like Madoff.

From one end of the globe to another Madoff had investors. Fortis in the Netherlands. Mass Mutual, among other large corporations and foundations throughout New England and in particular Boston. Elie Wiesel's foundation. Steven Spielberg. The list is endless. The trading corrupt. And bankruptcy for many in the offing.

And now it seems the Southern Republicans are trying to hold onto their hedge with imported car manufacturers with no unions, at the expense of another US region--the Midwest, with unions.