As the U.S. auto industry heads into a tailspin, this revelation by Jeffrey McCracken of the Wall Street Journal helps to explain at least some of the problem.

In his 34 years working for General Motors Corp., one of Jerry Mellon’s toughest assignments came this January. He spent a week in what workers call the “rubber room.”

The room is a windowless old storage shed for engine parts. It is filled with long tables, Mellon said, and has space for about 400 employees. They must arrive at 6 a.m. each day and stay until 2:30 p.m., with 45 minutes off for lunch. A supervisor roams the aisles, signing people out when they want to use the bathroom.

Their job: to do nothing.

And the costs to auto companies is staggering…

Each person costs GM about $100,000 to $130,000 in wages and benefits, according to internal union and company figures, which means GM’s total cost this year is likely to be about $750 million to $900 million.

Playing Trivial Pursuit, watching civil war movies, studying crossword puzzles or sleeping on a makeshift bed of chairs, GM is paying lots of money for nothing.

And guess who pays these extra costs? You do. It’s in the price of the vehicle.

I wonder too how much incentive this builds into making a quality product?

With U.S. car companies seeing sagging sales and profits it seems lots of folks are getting tired of paying high prices for junk.

It’s another case of corporate socialism bearing the fruit of a misguided ideology.

This is actually a funny article if it wasn’t so sad.