ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992                   TAG: 9203160163
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FREEZE SOME PRICES, EXAMINE PAY SCALES

YOUR HEADLINE Feb. 25 about General Motors closing some plants due to a downturn in sales in 1991 did not surprise me in the least.

These cars manufactured by companies are paying their assembly employees up to $25 per hour, with "perks" such as insurance and sub-pay (up to 90 percent when a worker is laid off and not producing anything). No wonder the automobile companies have priced themselves out of the market for the common working person who makes, say, $10 an hour and must pay his taxes and insurance out of that.

Unless prices and wages are stabilized at some optimum level, these consumers are simply going to drive their cars longer or buy a foreign import at a lower cost. I'll buy American, but only what I can afford.

Let's freeze or roll back some prices and take a hard look at pay scales, if we want to truly get the economy moving again. HAP PENDLETON ELLISTON 


 by CNB