December 8, 2008--"Gas Is Up And So Am I"
Thus spoke Manny Ramirez, the Los Angeles Dodgers' free-agent who is looking for at least $45 million in salary for the next two years.
Another baseball free-agent, pitcher C. C. Sabathia is sitting on an offer from the Yankees in which they are eager to pay him a total of at least $140 million for the next six years. That’s more than $23 million a year, guaranteed. (See linked NY Times story.)
The way I figure it, if he starts 35 games a year that amounts to about $400,000 every time he pitches. Last year he won only 17 games; if we assume that in 2009 he will win 20 games, that means the Yanks are willing to pay him $1.15 million per victory.
If we get further into the details, if on average he lasts until the seventh inning of every game he pitches (which actually inflates what he is likely to achieve) that means he will be on the mound for about a total of an hour each time he starts (he’ll be resting in the dugout for the rest of the time, and since the Yankees are in the American league he will not even be required to bat) and so if we calculate his hourly wage for what he is actually being paid to do—excluding exercising and participating in spring training where what he does doesn’t count—his wage would be $400,000 an hour.
Recession? What Recession?
This brings me again to the auto industry. As the Big Three wait to learn their fate, Congress and others are pointing fingers of blame at various parties to explain why these once proud American corporations are in such bad shape. Management became arrogant and continued to produce SUVs and other gas guzzlers while the price of gasoline soared and consumers turned to more fuel-efficient imports; members of Congress, many from auto producing states and on the payrolls of the automakers and the United Auto Workers Union, failed to require manufacturers to produce smaller, greener cars; the highway and oil and trucking industry lobbies effectively killed any hope that the country would have a world-class public transportation system; trade practices favored the importing of foreign cars to the detriment of American manufacturers selling their cars overseas; and of course, everyone’s favorite scapegoat, the UAW demanded and secured exorbitant salaries and lifetime benefits that made cars produced by union workers uncompetitive.
There is plenty of blame to share, but dumping so much of it on the autoworkers is disproportionate and unfair. Including the claim that they “make” $70 an hour. Not C. C. Sabathia or Manny Ramirez money but still, in comparison to what non-unionized autoworkers in the South earn, a fortune.
Actually, unionized autoworkers make $29.78 an hour for their labor on the line; and if you add their direct benefits it amounts to about $41 an hour in total compensation. The $70 number, assuming it’s fair to include it in their wages, is the result of GM and the others having to pay for lifetime health care benefits for all retired and disabled workers. There are at least 430,000 of them.
In all other countries where cars are manufactured—from England to Germany to Japan to Korea—all health benefits are borne by the government. Thus, in addition to most of them making better cars than we do, they also have that competitive advantage.
A final thought—why is it that when the U.S. government so relatively casually provided hundreds of billions to bail out AIG and Citibank, among others, their CEOs were not dragged before Congress and reprimanded for flying there in their private jets and, more interesting and revealing, why wasn’t what their workers earned—not the CEOs and other high flyers with their huge bonuses—why weren’t, say, their middle-level workers excoriated for what they’ve been taking home? I suspect a lot more than members of the UAW.
Another baseball free-agent, pitcher C. C. Sabathia is sitting on an offer from the Yankees in which they are eager to pay him a total of at least $140 million for the next six years. That’s more than $23 million a year, guaranteed. (See linked NY Times story.)
The way I figure it, if he starts 35 games a year that amounts to about $400,000 every time he pitches. Last year he won only 17 games; if we assume that in 2009 he will win 20 games, that means the Yanks are willing to pay him $1.15 million per victory.
If we get further into the details, if on average he lasts until the seventh inning of every game he pitches (which actually inflates what he is likely to achieve) that means he will be on the mound for about a total of an hour each time he starts (he’ll be resting in the dugout for the rest of the time, and since the Yankees are in the American league he will not even be required to bat) and so if we calculate his hourly wage for what he is actually being paid to do—excluding exercising and participating in spring training where what he does doesn’t count—his wage would be $400,000 an hour.
Recession? What Recession?
This brings me again to the auto industry. As the Big Three wait to learn their fate, Congress and others are pointing fingers of blame at various parties to explain why these once proud American corporations are in such bad shape. Management became arrogant and continued to produce SUVs and other gas guzzlers while the price of gasoline soared and consumers turned to more fuel-efficient imports; members of Congress, many from auto producing states and on the payrolls of the automakers and the United Auto Workers Union, failed to require manufacturers to produce smaller, greener cars; the highway and oil and trucking industry lobbies effectively killed any hope that the country would have a world-class public transportation system; trade practices favored the importing of foreign cars to the detriment of American manufacturers selling their cars overseas; and of course, everyone’s favorite scapegoat, the UAW demanded and secured exorbitant salaries and lifetime benefits that made cars produced by union workers uncompetitive.
There is plenty of blame to share, but dumping so much of it on the autoworkers is disproportionate and unfair. Including the claim that they “make” $70 an hour. Not C. C. Sabathia or Manny Ramirez money but still, in comparison to what non-unionized autoworkers in the South earn, a fortune.
Actually, unionized autoworkers make $29.78 an hour for their labor on the line; and if you add their direct benefits it amounts to about $41 an hour in total compensation. The $70 number, assuming it’s fair to include it in their wages, is the result of GM and the others having to pay for lifetime health care benefits for all retired and disabled workers. There are at least 430,000 of them.
In all other countries where cars are manufactured—from England to Germany to Japan to Korea—all health benefits are borne by the government. Thus, in addition to most of them making better cars than we do, they also have that competitive advantage.
A final thought—why is it that when the U.S. government so relatively casually provided hundreds of billions to bail out AIG and Citibank, among others, their CEOs were not dragged before Congress and reprimanded for flying there in their private jets and, more interesting and revealing, why wasn’t what their workers earned—not the CEOs and other high flyers with their huge bonuses—why weren’t, say, their middle-level workers excoriated for what they’ve been taking home? I suspect a lot more than members of the UAW.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:41 AM
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