Simple solution, my FRiend. Put Melania behind your wheel, and watch your car grow a pair of fins on its own. VaROOM, VaROOM :-)
Posted on 01/15/2017 3:20:00 PM PST by RC one
My only concern is the long term of funding social security and medicare. Those bombs are going to drop some day and it looks like it will be right about when I’m looking to retire. I’m concerned that people are going to get hurt if the tax base isn’t expanded somehow. Increasing the number of people with good paying jobs is the absolute best solution to the problem and that’s why we have elected Donald Trump.
These, and many other, great American classics had TRUE personality! Not like the ugly garbage passing for “style” today. Plus, the new cars all basically look alike. Sorry for those of you with late-model cars. I’m sure they’re better in many other ways.
My wife has been complaining about the “style” of today’s cars for a long time. She complains everything looks the same and wishes cars would be made with “fins” again.
My ‘66 Mustang was my first vehicle. I was a freshman in high school in the 70’s and it was a broken down wreck. I worked to save up for parts, and worked on the car and got it running during the summer of my junior year.
I love the Camaro and the Mustang because I love working on these cars when needed. I can easily get parts and they look and feel darn good.
So basically you support unions, just not American ones.
(IG Metall, JAW, etc...)
How many jobs would be gained if we stopped importing from Mexico and repatriated industry in the good ole USA? Hmmm?
Even if these unions are also enemies of this country (distinctly possible) I have a particular problem with *domestic* enemies.
PS you can find a lot of non union cars made in the USA. Toyotas and Hondas for instance.
I am no fan of unions but I want ALL manufacturing back even the union made manufacturing. We are dying as a country. It has to stop.
The good news is that 90% of manufacturing in the USA is done by non union workers. 90%.
It's certainly a mixed bag. Trade has lowered our cost of living, which is a good thing.
If we stopped buy clothes manufactured in Asia, then you kiss 50% of retail stores goodbye. Most of the income in the clothing section goes to play employees, not the clothes which are purchased for probably 1/10th of final price you pay.
But manufacturing and construction drives a ton of other jobs for parts, equipment, steel, transportation, etc. So there's a wonderful multiplier effect if you can keep manufacturing inside the country.
Trump, he da' man with da' rust belt plan...
I’m talking about cars made for the Japanese market made by Japanese carmakers .
I’m talking about cars made for the Japanese market made by Japanese carmakers IN Japan .
Simple solution, my FRiend. Put Melania behind your wheel, and watch your car grow a pair of fins on its own. VaROOM, VaROOM :-)
Explorers, built in Chicago. Not sure about what % of parts from where.
I have had a Hyundai Santa Fe that was proudly built near Montgomery, Alabama, and a Chevy S10 that was built in Canada. So go figure. More American working people had a stake in the Hyundai than in the Chevy.
That’s why I was careful to say “assembled”. #;^)
I see your point, yet I’d hate to see American companies like Ford and Harley go under just to spite unions. To me, that’s like “the operation was successful, but the patient died.” Your results may vary.
The “some transmissions” means manual transmissions in the case of the Mustang. Do you know of any automobile manufacturer that produces their own manual transmission? Typically they’re made by a specialized company like Tremec, New Process or Borg Warner.
Reminds me of a favorite photo on FR showing a Harley Davidson part with “Made in Japan” on the packaging. But the part was a carburetor. As if even Honda made their own carburetors.
You realize that until the “Great Recession” GM alone directly employed more Americans than all foreign car companies combined, right?
(I’m not sure of the statistic now, but I can’t imagine it shifting all that much. Other than probably can’t say “all” anymore.)
Some current numbers. These are direct American employees (assembly, drivetrain, stamping, casting and tooling plants, research and design facilities, U.S. headquarters, testing grounds—does not include part suppliers or dealerships)
Turns out the big three employ about half of what they did before the recession, and the foreign companies are gaining, so my previous anecdotal statistic is no longer valid.
GM - 77,000
Ford - 65,000
Mopar - 36,000
Toyota - 30,000
Honda - 26,000
Nissan - 10,000
Hyundai/Kia - 8,000
Trying to find the German figures, but it’s getting tedious. Looks like BMW is around 8,000 but can’t find Mercedes or Volkswagen.
Anyway, it’s a combined 178,000 American directly employed by the big three vs 74,000 for Americans directly employed by Asian auto manufacturers.
I guess I could say that GM employs more Americans directly than all of the Asian car companies combined. Just no longer true when you add in the Germans since GM employs about half of the people they did 10 years ago.
In 1969 there were 1.5 million UAW members. I think the dragon has been slain. We are now throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer: Princess Diana's death.
Question: How come?
Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whiskey, (check the bottle before you change the spelling) followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.
This is sent to you by an American, using Bill Gates's technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that use Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....
That, my friends, is Globalization.
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