26th Oct 2010, 09:57
"1) First of all, only TEN PERCENT of the American automotive work force works for FOREIGN MANUFACTURERS. Buying a domestic STILL helps 90% of those people."
So you are then admitting that people working for foreign automakers get a benefit from buying a domestically produced foreign branded car. In that case, I'm glad the US made Toyota I drive is putting food on the table of American workers.
"2) AMERICAN COMPANIES enrich the AMERICAN economy... EVEN if they outsource. The PROFITS are invested in AMERICA. Buying wealthy Japanese car company officials new yachts DOES NOT help the AMERICAN economy... AT ALL!!"
Like someone else mentioned, the corporate home city of the big 3- Detroit- is a classic example of urban decay. If what you said was true, then Detroit be a shining example of American prosperity. The execs at the big three are also extremely well compensated and also likely own yachts, private jets, and other expensive toys. Also - unlike Japanese car companies, WE have had to give money to 2 of the big three. Thus you've actually got it backwards - the big three haven't invested in us, instead we have had to bail them out - one of them more than once.
"3) Outsourcing by U.S. auto makers has SAVED TENS OF THOUSANDS of U.S. jobs by cutting costs that allows more money for research and development, new designs, more facilities and more workers IN THE U.S. Before making statements based solely on Japanese car company ad hype, DO SOME RESEARCH. I DID."
The big three have cut hundreds of thousands of jobs over the past 30 years, and this was even being done when they were making huge profits. I'm not sure what your argument is here.
22nd Oct 2010, 16:28
Yep, and they told you what you wanted to hear, didn't they?
Go check out Detroit sometime. You know the great Motor City that the big three made such a thriving city out of decades ago. Yeah, it is now a wasteland and an embarrassment for America. The auto companies saved their money all right, but at what cost to this country?
To cut jobs in order to save other jobs is not an acceptable practice to me. These companies should be able to figure out how to be viable with 100% U.S. factories and workers like they were in the good old days when they were on top. There is no excuse for this lack of planning, and the "take the easy way out" approach. The only way this would be acceptable is if all of the vehicles that are produced in a certain country are for the marketplace in that country, like what Japan is doing here for the U.S. market. Then at least you are supplying jobs for the actual people that are buying your products.
It makes no sense to me that as a U.S. company, you build the car in Canada or Mexico, paying their workers to do the job, and then turn around and import the car back into the U.S. and expect someone else to buy it. Sorry, if this is the only way they can save jobs, then we should have let them fail. We used to be the biggest manufacturing nation in the world, which lead to our dominance. Now we send most of our manufacturing work out of the country to cut costs and continue the fairy tale lives we've all become accustomed to.
If (and it is a big IF) we are ever going to get back what we once had, our companies have to stop exporting jobs PERIOD! If you want to continue to support this lame practice of job exportation then, so be it. Yes, jobs have been saved for now, but they are continually opening new factories, so how long do you think things will favor the U.S. worker? Trust me, if there is a cost cutting measure, the big three will take it, and they could care less about the U.S. worker if it gets in the way of their bottom line!