Posted on 11/18/2008 5:07:19 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
How American is that car?
It’s harder than ever to figure out which cars are the most American. The government requires that automakers disclose what percentage of a new vehicles’ components are U.S. or Canadian and where the vehicle was assembled. Here is the information for most new models. The 2006 data was the latest information disclosed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by automakers. The 2007 and 2008 statistics were compiled by USA TODAY from automakers and from visits to car dealerships. (Story)
Manufacturer Make and model
Model year Percent content US/ Canada Assembled in:
US/Canada Outside
Go to: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-03-21-car-content-chart_N.htm
Toyota, Honda and Nissan come in at around $48 an hour w/benefits, whereas, the Big 3 Automakers come in at $73 an hour w/ benefits. I am using only statistics and figures for U.S. plants.
If you allow unions to extort your company and drive labor costs up 50% more than the competition, you deserve to go bankrupt. I am against any bailout and especially if unions are not going to leave the game. When the financial sector bailout became a reality, my first thought was, “where will it end?”.
Everyone has their hand out now and the line will get longer as time passes.
We have similar histories - I’m also from a blue-collar family, worked my way through college.
Took awhile, but I make a decent living and I will likely continue to as long as I keep my skills current and can demonstrate my value to my employer.
I don’t harbor any resentment towards autoworkers for making what they do per se - I do resent the means they used to obtain that compensation. Its really too bad that they didn’t ditch the outdated and counterproductive mindset decades ago. Sure, the UAW might be half the size it is today, but those jobs, and their employers, would be secure, high-paying and profitable. The current situation is unsustainable, and has been for years. The unions could still be key parts of the solution, but its sadly unlikely that they will. Instead, everyone will lose - except the japanese manufacturers who will flood the vacuum that will be created as the Big 3 come crashing down - and that will happen bailout or no bailout, IMHO.
The unions is why “buy American” is BS.
“Toyota, Honda and Nissan come in at around $48 an hour w/benefits,..”
Sure. I have read articles that their labor cost is starting to increase quickly. At this time they have no legacy costs in the US, when people start retiring that will change.
“the Big 3 Automakers come in at $73 an hour w/ benefits.”
With benefits plus LEGACY costs, that is the rub that is missing. Keep in mind that the big 3 have more retirees than actual employees by a ration of something like 2 or 3 to 1.
I didn’t support the previous bailout and I don’t support an auto bailout. However, I want the discussion to revolve around facts.
“And call their Senators/Congress-Critters and say...
“Blow ‘em up NOW...and start over again with a blank piece of paper!”
We already did that with the previous bailout and look at how well the congresscritters listened. Heck, the voters just confirmed that they don’t care if their reps listened to them.
You post bears repeating again and again.
“As you point out, it’s not just about what each person does. It’s also about how much training and sacrifice was involved. I worked through college and medical school (labored for brick layers, moved furniture, pumped gas, worked in a factory etc.) and was near 30 when I graduated. Then I started residency training, working 12 -14 hour days and not sleeping at all every 4th night, for just over $20,000/yr. During this time some of my student loans came due, and I worked at nights moonlighting at outside hospitals to pay them (some of them were 13-14% interest rate HEAL loans). Then I did a fellowship to get sub-specialty training for another 5 years (total nine years of training AFTER medical school). During much of that period I made less than $30,000/year, and the highest was about $41,000/year for one or two years. Then I stated my first job as a sub-specialist, and was low on the totem poll for quite a while with a commensurately low salary. It really is important to consider what is involved in training for a position to put relative wages in proper context. Also, I have to plan for my own retirement, and don’t have an autoworker type pension plan. Oh, I also came from a blue collar family, was the first in my family to go to college, and didn’t get help with medical school tuition.”
In my case, I attended school on my own earnings and on merit scholarships plus part time jobs of all kinds. After years and years of working for about the wage rates you were paid, I eventually landed a professional job with uncertain stability for about twice what I made as a student. In 2006, I and my wife’s combined earnings were pounded by the AMT. It took decades for us to reach that level of income and it was only earned for two years before my wife had to go part time. A lot of people who will be hit hard by the new O-tax on the “wealthy” will be people who worked their behinds off to get to that level of income and only reached it in their later earning years.
That never gets mentioned in the Dem’s political rhetoric. This will discourage young people from striving to do well and work toward a better earning job in the future. It isn’t worth the years of sacrifice to make a good salary that gets taxed away in your last few years of working.
Those who vote to “tax the rich” should be surprised to find that no one will go to the trouble to work and educate themselves to become a competent professional who provides a valuable service to society. Perhaps those voters can try to provide their own higher education or their own surgery.
What you don’t know is the story behind the Jobs Bank.
GM wanted to apply automation and robotics to car assembly. The UAW refused to let them and threatened to strike if ONE robot was installed in any plant anywhere, because they feared automation would replace their members (and it should have). The Jobs Bank was invented by GM execs so that the UAW would agree to some limited automation in the plants.
If it weren’t for the Jobs Bank, GM cars would be even worse built than they are today; they’d still be back in the “half-ass hand welded” era. But if it weren’t for the UAW, there wouldn’t need to be a Jobs Bank.
If you are buying parts for GM cars, you’re still paying the union surcharge.
“Wow, what a play on words. In reality, the $28.50 earner actually costs $60 per hour...”
Actually, it appears that the average of $28.50 per hour quoted in the article includes benefits:
“’Using Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, the average compensation for manufacturing workers is around $31.50, and the average hourly compensation, including benefits, for the average worker in the U.S. economy is around $28.50,’ Perry told CNSNews.com.”
As well, it was pointed out that foreign auto manufacturers in the US pay total compensation packages around $43 per hour. That's only about 60% of what the “Big” Three are paying.
sitetest
Wow.
You are SPOT ON.
I’m a systems analyst with management experience in manufacturing and logistics, and I couldn’t agree more.
I am against any bailout unless the UAW and its members take about a 40% haircut on Wages and fringes. The same applies to the AutoMakers.
Why should AMERICANS pay for the corrupt unions bailout if they won’t take a haircut too. Enough is enough.
Did you hear Rush talk about the pay of to laid off auto workers, today? A former auto worker called in and confirmed that laid off workers get paid for not working even if they turn down a job at a different location.
I heard. But I already knew it.
The unions are breaking this country. They do not subscribe to the American way, or the way it used to be..a fair wage for a fair day of WORK.
Unions are just welfare agents.
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