Posted on 05/07/2006 8:14:11 AM PDT by SamAdams76
Sorry you had such bad experiences with bad US-brand cars. I like me some Mazda, Subaru and Toyota (just got a Prius for my commute-- gas + car-pool lane privileges + cool features), but my husband and I bought a Ford Focus wagon when our Outback bought the dust. It's been running like a champ for years and we've been very happy with it. Trim turn-radius and great gas mileage too.
The steel workers that precipitated the decline in the old steel industry are unemployed.... their plants are closed.
The union workers for Rubbermaid whose jobs moved to China are unemployed.
The jobs are gone the people are exunion.
The jobs of which you speak are a diffrent kettle of fish. The change being tried is the result of wage arbitrage caused by new communications capabilities.
Good question.
There is a big range in value. I have 50,000 miles on mine. I can tell you can't get $18 on a trade at a Toyota dealer.
Corrected website address below:
http://boycottford.com/
But Ford does own 40% of Mazda.
The US automakers cannot compete in the mid-sized, mid-priced market anymore and have all but ceded that market to foreigners. The Japanese makers simply provide a better value product to the consumer. The only thing sustaining Detroit are (high profit margin) full-sized SUVs and pickups --- a market that is likely to be shaky at best, with gas prices going who knows where.
Now THATS funny!
If you think this is bad, wait until cities start paying the retirement bills for the Police, Fire and Prison workers.
These people get their annual pay as retirement after 30 years and I get SS after 45 years.
Just wait until the bill starts to come due.
I try not to either. The auto industry, along with some of the airlines, are examples of union control.
However, nowadays, most everyone and every business know that. As has been pointed out, union membership is declining. The REAL loss of union membership, however, is from private companies. There is, and has been, a real surge in membership in public employee unions. And we "buy", at the point of a gun, their "sevices" every day, be it teachers, air-traffic control, public hospitals, some police, some fire, etc.
a real surge in membership in public employee unions.
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An excellent reminder. Most of the government drones are unionized including the CIA. What a scary thought!
I am glad that in your situation things worked out for the better. I have a friend who ended up losing his house because the loss of his job that was sent to India. He had to train his replacement who was brought in from India to even be able to get any severence pay. So much for 20 years of working loyalty to that company.
He even went to work at two jobs working 14 hour days.
His heart attack was directly related to the stress. Oh and he didn't have any medical insurance either because he couldn't afford the cobra payments.
A great example of the American Dream being outsourced to foreigners in the name of a corporation earning more money.
Americans built those companies, not the unions.
Companies used to reward loyalty. Now they spit on their employees.
You may find great products in the foreign cars. Just beware of the hidden cost.
Japanese redneck = Leadneck
Sounds like you drive pickup trucks.. Where Ford and GM still make quality vehicles. And because of it dominate in those SUV and pickup areas.
I'm not really sure why Ford and GM even bother making cars.. they seem to lose a lot of money, and it gives them a bad image. I'd like to see them get rid of the low end brands.. or just be a redistributor of Japanese cars, like the Pontiac Vibe is a Toyota Matrix. But concentrate on the big trucks and SUV's, where they make a huge profit.
Unfortunately they'd have to accept being a lot smaller companies, especially with rising gas costs. As people are turning to small cars.. that is a lot of the reason the Japanese are rising in total sales in the US.
The fact that foreign car makers are now building plants and producing a certain percentage oftheir products in the USA is because of a loophole in the import tariffs. If they produce a certain percentage of their cars or trucks in America, they are allowed to import the rest of their foreign manufactured product line duty free. Since they already have lower assembly costs overseas, the avoidance of the import tariff duty puts considerably more profit in the cars imported. And that more than offsets the investment in American based assembly. Now if American manufacturers want to sell cars overseas, do they get the same loophole? No.
Check the trade restrictions placed on American made products that are exported and there is not a level playing field. Pretty hard to compete in the so called world economy when the playing field is stacked against American Automakers.
"IMHO, GM and Ford are deliberatelty letting their U.S. product lines go down the toilet in order to kill the union parasites and are investing in the Japanese companies where they don't have to be exploited by the greedy union types."
Many new GM vehicles are/will use chassis designed in Europe, namely Saab/Opel/Vauxall. GM also jointly builds some vehicles with Toyota.
Many new Ford vehicles are/will use chassis designed in Europe, namely Volvo.
So it looks like the Detroit capability to design vehicles has ALREADY been "outsourced."
GM and Ford have been horribly managed. If unions were/are killing them, scramble away pronto!!
But they have also been flatfooted in the market--no hybrids. Probably because hybrids were not felt to add to the next quarter EPS reports and bonus awards.
Meanwhile Toyota and Honda put hybrids on the road. The new Toyota Camry Hybrid get honest 40 MPG City!! For about $27,000 to $32,000 (leather seats, sunroof, nav system).
Good post.. a lot of information. The automation in Japan is amazing. Its how true wealth is created.. what economists used to know but seem to have forgotten. Long term capital investment. I read a few months ago that the average Japanese worker, works with 34 times the capital of the average Chinese worker.
The Japanese are continuing to relentlessly invest in capital. Like you said designing the vehicles very early on in the design process to be easy to automate the manufacturing of those vehicles. Investing in robotics, even when a lot of the world has been sceptical of what they could do.
Are unions took a luddite philosophy, so it was only a matter of time before technology took them out. One of the interesting things is that although Japan isn't really unionized.. Korea is. I am going to be interested to see if they can continue automating in Korea, fighting the unions there.
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