captain howdy

To the point of costing yourself and other hardworking Americans jobs?

Harpozep

I know what you mean. The SHO had a lot of Japanese input in the drive train. Yamaha motor marine division designed the engine. I have another post on it somewhere on this site, with some engine pictures like this:



I thought the melding of the two worked well in the SHO. But clearly the US manufacturers leaned nothing and went on to build the Excursion! Ok, that does not mean they did not react to what consumers wanted or does it? Did the SUV thing happen top down or bottom up? Dunno. Capitalism at work and all that.

What I can say is the US manufacturers put nearly all their eggs in one basket depending upon the profits from highly priced SUVs to carry them.
They have paid a price for that. I hope they learn. They cannot be run like the US government which clearly shows it never learns a thing form its mistakes, and can keep taking unlimited funds to try anything. The US auto manufactures hav no supply to unlimited funds, and their time is running out.
That said, I love our HHR, IRON MAN!
Which as we all know is made in Mexico.

alien_sporez

Short answer, "yes."

Longer answer. I am employed by a foreign company. My employer is based in a foreign country that sent its jobs here to the USA. We, in turn, purchase materials from both the US and foreign countries. The location of the producer of that material isn't as important to my employer as is the quality of the product. Which explains why I am employed here... because the work we do here is the best in the world. I know it, and my employer knows it. If the quality of my work isn't the best, then I can certainly expect my job to be given to someone who can do it better. By that same rationale, the pressure of the consumer on the US companies is what will drive them to improve. If they are always provided a living no matter what they do, then what's their incentive to produce a better product? None.

Now, what if my employer decided to take away MY job and give to a domestic employee where the company is based? Well, I'm out of a job for no other reason than nationalism.

Ironically, the nationalism that you're talking about that will keep foreign products out of the US, it is the same rationale we're fighting against to get our productsinto the Chinese market... and the Chinese market makes the US market look like small potatoes.

In reality though... there are no longer any true "foreign" or "domestic" companies. Foreign products like Camrys are Corollas, are all produced here. American products like iPods are produced in Indonesia. And on and on. The Sigma platform for the all-American Cadillac is Australian. The Zeta platform for the Pontiac G8... is Australian. The V-platform for the Cadillac Catera was German. The Chevy Lumina was an Australian platform, assembled in Canada for the US market.

captain howdy

I'm all for free trade but it's became too rampant in our country. Our government encourages it a bit too much and we the consumer embrace it a bit too much. Not enough balance. I’m sure China is a whole different story being Communist. I heard that within a few years China wants all foreign auto manufacturers producing vehicles in China to turn over their engineering files and tooling to the government.

alien_sporez

Obviously anything I say will not sway your opinion, nor am I trying to. But there is very little "us" and "them" anymore. Our economies are so intertwined it's impossible to say 'this' is domestic and 'that' is foreign. What about all those Americans who are assembling Camrys, and Corollas, and Sonatas? Or consider the Opel (GM) assembly plant in Polska in sourthern Poland? Should those Poles stop buying Opels because they're 'foreign?' What about all the Americans who work to design and produce Opels... they'll be out of jobs if Poles and Czechs and Hungarians decide they're not going to buy a foreign product.

captain howdy

I think that's part of why there isn't a clean cut solution anymore. America needed to act back in the 60's when we had the opportunity. I think our government should tax the hell out of products produced by foreign companies whether they were made here or not. If the profit of the sale doesn't stay here in America but goes back to China, Japan, The Moon, or wherever whoever made the purchase should be punished and our country should profit. I guess sometimes my Socialism comes out a bit too much.

Goose

As requested by ymerej









Goose

Harpozep

YAY! a Coke HHR picture. Hmm, needs runnin' boards......
Now where were we....

My right wing friend from Texas drives only foreign cars. He says Americans don't make'em good any more. Besides, he does not want to support unions. No unions in his world. He tries to avoid helping any unions, even teachers! 'Commoonizm!", he cries!. Not on this God's earth! He snorts!
He figures all foreign cars are not made by unions of any kind anywhere. He figures low wage laborers make them and Patriotic non-union Americans too. (Huh? )

I do try to make the case that some unions were good and same are good, and yes some overstep their bounds, etc. Then I let him know that because of union activity we have the weekend. To that he responds " God gave us one day off to worship him. That is good enough. Damn Unions...."

And so it goes.. some folks can just get real pig headed at times. oh boy!
But hey, we all have odd friends, don't we?

That would be a good topic for another thread.
"My weird friend"
Hey, somebody, go with it. I gotta get back to work!

calgaryhhr

I think there is also an underlieing cultural factor to this discussion. Correct me if I am wrong but hasn't there been a huge cultural shift in the American population. It seems as though there has been a move towards an attitude of not caring. People show up at work and they just don't care and they are unhappy. Workplaces and attitudes have shifted from providing a good service and being excited about that to just not giving a rats ass. If companies (and or a country) can't make their employees happy these employees are going to do crappy work. There's places in the world and companies where one of there major priorities is worker happiness and moral. Places like Germany, Denmark, Japan they value their employees.

I think that if the American worker cared more and had more incentive to do a good job a better quality product could be produced.

captain howdy

I can agree with this having several employees in my years. Most don't seem to care but there are several that do care and bust their ass. I personally take great pride in my work and give 110% to the company I work for and in return they take care of me. That's why I always end up as supervisor no matter where I work. I currently only have four employees under me and out of the four two are hard working and the other two just don't give a damn. The two that don't give a damn have been in the same positions for over 10 years no matter who their supervisor is. Out the two that bust their ass one just got moved into a way more important position by myself in my department because I couldn't stand to see the guys talent and hard work go to waste in a meaningless position in another department. The other guy that bust his ass just got offered a supervisor position in another department but turned it down. If what you said is true it would affect Japanese vehicles built here by our workers. But apparently that's not the case because of the perceived quality of Japanese vehicles.