Whirlpool Unveils Plans to Slash Workforce by 10% (another company closing an American plant)

Fox News ^ | 10/28/2011 | Reuters

[tobyhill]

Whirlpool Corp , the world's largest appliance maker, slashed its full-year profit forecast and said it would cut about 10 percent of its workforce in North America and Europe, to protect margins in a weak economic environment.

The maker of Maytag and KitchenAid appliances will cut more than 5,000 positions and said it would close down its plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and reduce its overall manufacturing capacity by about 6 million units.

[elpadre]

Was the plant making a profit, or not? Are the competitors making a profit or not?

I recall my days in industry when we downsized because competitors were getting some of our share of the market or the economy going south, that the plant became more productive and continued in business. However, when profits increased we couldn't stand the good times, so we added people we didn't need, and did all kinds of nice but costly things and soon our competitors were beating us again, sales slumped and we downsized again. It seemed like a cycle for undisciplined industrial leaders.

[1rudeboy]

95 percent of U.S. goods shipped to S. Korea will become duty-free within 5 years.

Read it and weep, protectionists. Then read it again.

[algernonpj]

... Well, hope this was helpful.

Yes this helps tremendously.

In summary, you believe in out-sourcing the tools of national defense to countries that may not be your friend in the future except when you don't, not fighting back when attacked because it may not be a 'net plus' except when you don't, putting your country's domestic workers and industry in an untenable competition with neo-slave labor in countries that lack even minimal standards as regards the environment or labor conditions for the benefit of global corporations and finance.

A graphic representation of your logic:

[1rudeboy]

Now that is a field full of strawmen!

[agere_contra]

I should also mention subsidies: which are a form of tariff. Both tariffs and subsidies are a form of slavery.

For instance, every GM Volt, every Solyndra panel, every gallon of ethanol not-fuel - they come with a price tag which you, the American taxpayer picks up.

You are paying a coupon on these subsidized goods so that some Democrat can live large.

But hey, it’s not slavery if you say it isn’t.

[Reeses]

raise their prices as the result of a tariff placed on their competition

So make tariffs small and temporary and dedicate the money to developing competitive advantages such as new automation technologies. Exporting these must be made illegal. We can't just give up. We have to restore our competitiveness somehow or move to the poor house. How would you do it?

[algernonpj]

The tariff issue is more complex than that. The Founders evidently thought them good both for revenue and to help infant industry survive. Some industries are strategic and must be sustained for national defense.
Many nations have de facto tariffs in fees and delays in their customs facilities which make it impossible to sell mass quantities in their markets. Free trade only seems to work one way in the real world of international trade. The free trade nation in a Mercantilist world is a sucker.

Or lives in a national run by a political elite with well-lined pockets.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

It’s so nice of you to be concerned with us Yankees.

Gosh. Thanks I see the light.

I think I’ll buy a Jaguar. A good British car.

Tata for now.

[padre35]

They do incentivize domestic production, and companies will of course locate to the US as it is the second largest mkt in the world, they would still offshore profits of course but the idea that they would just not participate is simply illogical.

Reagan proved exactly this in the 80’s by using import quotas to incentivize japanese automakers to locate to the US.

[1rudeboy]

So make tariffs small and temporary . . . .

[1rudeboy thinks ruefully of the excise tax paying for the Spanish-American War].

[algernonpj]

>95 percent of U.S. goods shipped to S. Korea will become duty-free within 5 years.

Read it and weep, protectionists. Then read it again.

Of course what you are not told here is that Korea will still use it's 10% VAT against US goods.

Korea will remove the 10% vat tax from goods exported to the US and add a 10% VAT tax on goods imported to Korea from the US.

[padre35]

Exactly, Adam Smith was a smart man.

[padre35]

Or..*gosh* the company has to reduce it’s earnings outlook.

Shock! Horror! Fire!

Which is somewhat poor for the shareholders, thems the breaks.

[padre35]

As economists love to say “in the long run, it will all even out”

IE, enjoy the screwing, when wages are down to 3rd world levels, then it won’t matter as much...

[1rudeboy]

U.S. corporations pay VAT there, S. Korean corporations pay income tax here (absent some sort of a tax treaty that I am not aware of). But we are talking about tariffs and duties.

[padre35]

Well, there are large differences in struture between the US and UK, meaning a company can easy avoid some of the mess of a heavily unionized workforce by simply locating to a State that does not have such a workforce.

In the UK, that is not possible of course, the US also has far more potential capacity then the UK meaning trained workers or raw materials are more abundant and more cheaply sourced.

[1rudeboy]

As a real economist once said:

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

[padre35]

Uhm, not they don’t, offshore companies typically transmit their earnings to Ireland or other tax havens and remove it from their domestic US books.

[1rudeboy]

Got any numbers on that? LOL

[padre35]

Economists are to math as withdoctors are to the medical profession.