“How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour.”
Because in reality, the Germans build crap for cars:
Yeah, I tried it with a BMW Convertible for my wife. Wonderful car to drive, but the $hits to maintain. When the plastic radiator blew up on a hot day, the tow truck operator told us, “alll the German cars do it.” When I took it to an indy shop to have it repaired, they told us that a “precautionary radiator change:” at 50,000 miles on all BMW’s should be mandatory and you should put in an aftermarket part to eliminate the problem. Hew said we were lucky that the resulting overheat didn’t crack the cylinder head because that would have added $4,000. to the $1,000 repair bill for the radiatior, hoses, new water pumt and the replacement of the plastic water outlet with an aluminum one. Oh, now the convertable top interferes with the stowage compartment lid and we are told that the “strapping” in the top is stretched because we didn’t put it down enough and the repair is a $6,000. new top. So screw the Germans and their “wonderful cars, my cheapt-assed Corvette which I bought at the same time as the BMW and which has about the same milage hasn’t had a thing go wrong with it!
Again, the what free traitors bring up - in arguing we should keep free trade - is that the salaries/unions/benefits of American workers are to blame. If we search for real world examples we find that is not true and not the cause of the rust belt.