The $70 per hour US autoworker is a myth: "average wages for workers at Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors were just $28 per hour as of 2007." And the actual wage gap between the Big Three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) and their Japanese competitors isn't actually that significant. So where did the 7-0 figure come from?
Analysts came up with it by including the cost of all employer-provided benefits--namely, health insurance and pensions--and then dividing by the number of workers. The result, they found, was that benefits for Big Three cost about $42 per hour, per employee. Add that to the wages--again, $28 per hour--and you get the $70 figure. Voila.Except ... notice something weird about this calculation? It's not as if each active worker is getting health benefits and pensions worth $42 per hour. That would come to nearly twice his or her wages. (Talk about gold-plated coverage!) Instead, each active worker is getting benefits equal only to a fraction of that--probably around $10 per hour, according to estimates from the International Motor Vehicle Program. The number only gets to $70 an hour if you include the cost of benefits for retirees--in other words, the cost of benefits for other people.
Read rest here.
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This penguin swimming to stay ahead of a hungry pack of killer whales is quite an inspiration. Watch until the very end for the payout. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwqbqZ3L60&fmt=18]
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This print ad immediately cracked me up. Tagline is "It's summertime in London."
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View more on Magdalena Bors' 
Page Six (CMMV) reports:
That although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reaction-ary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut . . .
This is a quote from a speech she gave at the University of Florida in October 2005.
They're [Democrats] always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let's do it. Let's repress them. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment.
CMMV: Credibility Mileage May Vary.
[Thanks Paul!]
- Follow Shaq on Twitter...and he's been using TwitPic to upload RIDICULOUS photos like this one.
- The Thanksgiving meat monstrosity that is the Turbaconducken.
- "Instead of out-of-work men asking, 'Brother, can you spare a dime?' we have executives asking Congress if it can spare $100 billion." Daniel Gross puts some perspective on the current banking crisis.
- Beautiful winter photography.
- What happens in your body in the first 60 minutes of drinking Coke.
- Naughty wallpaper.
- The different in unspoken communication between girls and between bros.
- Toshiba bullet time. Tres cool.
- Military getting stealth robocopter.
- Guitar Hero as training for bionic arms. And future cyborg robots. I bet Cable from the X-Men would be wicked on Guitar Hero.
- Future Suri. I don't know why this is so absurdly funny to me. Poor child.
- Recent Vogue editorial where one 20-year-old model is photographed to appear 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years old. Impressive work by some talented people.
- My future shower.
- Top 10 non-Asian artists with Asian sounding names.
- 100 essential jazz albums.
First thought is, this is clever. Second is, this is so obvious!
My dad was a ruthless real estate mogul when it came to this game. Absolutely ruthless.
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On Friday night I went to Bowlmor for some bowling, and then Beauty Bar.
Stan, Sam, and Eileen (who unsuccessfully tried to hide from the all seeing camera)!
Roberto's balls. Yes, this joke never gets old. Never.
Hah! Yup, this doesn't get old either.
Improv with bowling balls! I'm...uhm, pregnant!
Stan looking kind of pensive here. Haha.
Strike! Any one who got a strike had to do a little dance.
We played two games. I finished last in the first round and won the second round with a stunning score of 111. Man, we are terrible at bowling. But it was a lot of fun!
Bowling shoes!
And then we walked over to Beauty Bar where a happenin' dance party was occurring in the back.
Stan! Me!
The girls.
My twin brother ruining this photo with a crude gesture. I apologize on his behalf.
Final photo of an extremely fun night.
The End.
Ah, this never gets old. I found this bug on Ashley Simko's blog:
This video of a kitten chasing around her stripper baby momma is almost as good as the cat on a Roomba. I'm just the messenger, people. Just the messenger. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9njqOri1htE&fmt=18]
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Watch Nick Miller's hilarious submission for the Doritos commercial competition.
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This fun plugin for your Apple's Photo Booth imitates the now iconic image of President-Elect Obama created by Shepard Fairey.
Jeff Bridges' photo diary during the shooting of Iron Man is a real treat for any fan of the movie and/or the actors and director involved.
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While doing some hard drive house cleaning on my computer I found this priceless photo from circa 2005 (I think?) of Cyrus getting molested on the dance floor. Never seen a grown man cry in a club before. I don't think we've been back to this place since then.
Tangentially related to the previous entry, this is from a 1987 concert. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i39tcwTpM4&fmt=18]