The big 3 auto companies are dying

[davkakach]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/26/replacing_the_big_three.php

Replacing The Big Three
Robert Reich
September 26, 2006

Robert Reich is professor of public policy at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was secretary of labor in the Clinton administration and co-founder of The American Prospect.

Once it gets through its latest round of job cuts, Ford will have fewer American workers than Toyota. General Motors has become a shadow of its former self. The only car on its drawing board that has a chance of big sales will be built in South Korea. Meanwhile, Chrysler is swimming in red ink and planning major plant closings. By the way, Chrysler is now part of Daimler-Chrysler, headquartered in Germany.

Detroit's Big Three are shrinking into the Small Three. They now employ 15 percent fewer workers than they did a decade ago, and half the number they employed forty years ago. Meanwhile, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are the New Three. Toyota is inching up on GM, and Honda is surpassing Chrysler.

But here's the truly stunning thing: Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are making most of the cars they sell in the United States here in the United States, with American workers. And they're building new plants in the U.S. as fast as they can. In a few years more Americans will be working for Japanese automakers than work for American.

Does it really make any difference? Maybe to our national pride.

But, hey, we have the largest retailer in the world, don't we? Wal-Mart now employs more people than does the entire U.S. auto industry. We also have the world's largest and most expensive health care industry and biggest military. Over the last five years, health care and the military have been responsible for almost all the net new jobs created in America.

But the real issue isn't the number of jobs. It's their quality, and that's the big problem. Detroit's Big Three paid wages, health and pension benefits that together amounted to about $80 an hour in today's money. The Japanese transplants in America pay half as much. Wal-Mart pays less than a quarter as much. Meanwhile, hospital orderlies and elder-care workers don't come near matching the United Auto Workers at the old Big Three. And military work is just plain dangerous.

So as the Big Three shrink, we ought to be making up for the good jobs we're losing. One place to start would be for the nation to invest in emerging industries like bio-technology, non-fossil based energy, new materials and nanotechnologies. Out these could come the good middle-class jobs of the 21st century—technician-type jobs involving upgrading, installing, repairing, injecting, testing, or improving upon a host of products designed to prevent the spread of dread diseases, give us energy without further warming the globe, and improve the speed and durability of countless items.

Even now, there's a large and growing demand for pharmacy technicians, lab technicians, hospital technicians, and office technicians. In this post auto-worker age, young people need some education beyond high school to get these and other technical skills of the future.

The sad fact is they aren't getting them. According to a recent report of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the post-boomer generation is less educated than the boomers, and less able to afford college. Their families can't afford the cost. And government isn't filling the gap. Pell Grants for college are less available than they were a decade or two ago. Colleges are less affordable. Federal money for job training is drying up.

There's no bringing back the Big Three. But shame on us for turning our backs on the big picture.

This commentary originally appeared on  Marketplace, public radio's only daily business news program, and is reprinted via a special arrangement between TomPaine.com and Robert Reich. Marketplace is produced by Minnesota Public Radio and is heard on 322 public radio stations nationwide. More online at www.marketplace.org

[Scriabin]

Unfortunately it looks like China will be the next great empire...and soon.

[davkakach]

You're right.  Even the Japanese, who are extreme nationalists and hate the Chinese
with a passion, are relocating some of their manufacturing to China.

[Christian Zionist]

These US companies deviated from Biblical principles.  They are funding fag organizations and financing the left wing establishment.

http://www.boycottford.com/

In Tanak we can read whenever the Israelites abandoned the God of their forefathers God permitted foreigners to plunder ancient Israel.  History repeats itself!

[davkakach]

Henry Ford (who influenced Hitler, and consequently, the fate of six
million European Jews, through his book, "The International Jew,"
which was based upon and borrowed heavily from the Russian forgery,
"The Protocols"; Hitler admired Ford greatly and had Ford's picture in
his office), together with his son Edsel (after whom the most expensive
automobile flop in history is named, the 50's Edsel), founded the Ford
Foundation in 1936.

The Ford Foundation is an evil, subversive, leftist cancer that has
virtually unlimited funds, which it uses to support organizations such
as the ACLU, La Raza, National Public Radio, MoveOn.org, and many
other America-hating, One World Government communists and
universalists.  Volumes upon volumes can be written about the Ford
Foundation's treasonous and seditious activities, and the damage that
it inflicted and continues to inflict upon America.

Right now the Ford Foundation and Ford Motor Company are separate
organizations, with separate boards of trustees and directors (or so they
claim), but the evil legacy of Henry Ford lives on.

Even after "The Protocols" was proved (beyond a shadow of a doubt)
to be a forgery by a gentile reporter, Henry Ford refused to disavow his
anti-Semitic views (unlike Winston Churchill who showed more decency,
intelligence, and character when he admitted he was wrong), and Ford
remained a vicious Jew-hater to the core of his being until his last breath.

[cjd]

I never thought I would see the day I agree with that Evil Troll Robert Reich but I can find little I disagree with in his article. As good or bad as people feel the American car companies are I for one am very sorry to see them in the state they are in. Some of it is poor management and possibly quality issues with product. For me they are American companies  that tried to continue giving their workers good salaries, normal work days,  good benefits and excellent retirement plans . Things that would allow auto workers  to live a middle class life style. The Japanese companies that are replacing GM and Ford production  may be suppling jobs to depressed parts of the country however the low pay, excessive work hours lack of benefits and little or no pension are no secret. In an effort to pay its employees what they promised them in pensions and good pay the American companies have neglected R&D on new technology and design and in the process have put themselves in the position they are now in. Its not the the cars they are producing are not as good as the jap and now emerging Korean ones its just that they should and could even be better if the playing field were even. Now GM and Ford are forced into a position to demand wage concessions from their workers in order to compeat with this foreign menice. I see this as the start of the lowering of Americas standard of living since our companies must now be put in a position of compeating with companies that feel Americans should live at third world standards. First we lost our electronics companies now auto and watch just how fast in goes through all sectors of our countries work force white and blue collar alike. Ford and GM are whats left of the Arsenal of Democracy which supplied our troupes in WW2 with much of the equipment they needed lets hope Toyota and Hyundai will be there to do the same.

[Shlomo]

Henry Ford (who influenced Hitler, and consequently, the fate of six
million European Jews, through his book, "The International Jew,"

Yes, I can't stand Ford... he was an evil communist control freak who controlled how his employees kept their houses. They would send people to visit to see if it was "clean enough" or if the lawn was looking ok. He received a medal from Hitler. He was a sick pile of filthy vomit... I'll never buy a Ford... and they also support "homosexual rights".

Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate by Neil Baldwin
ISBN: 1586481630

[cjd]

Yes its very true that Henry Ford was quite cozy with Hitler. I have read quite a few books on Ford and what you are saying is quite true. At one point in the start of WW2 the American government was considering confiscating Ford Motor Company for war production. Old Henry had become soft in the head in his old age and was not meeting war production standards and also doing some strange things. They deferred grandson Henry Jr to run the company for war production and didn't have to seize the company after all. Not to overly defend Henry Ford Senior it must be said he was the product of different times and even in his old age in the late 1940s he was a relic in his social thinking and actions. The company itself has become extremely politically correct and global in its thinking since it operations are world wide. Henry Ford is long dead and  Ford is no better or worse than the sneaky Japaneses who attacked our country at Pearl Harbor. Even though the bulk of the import cars are now made here in America the thought of supporting a foreign company before our own is repulsive to me.

[genteelgentile]

Maybe it is time to cut corporate taxes that help to make companies look to foreign countries to operate in.

[TheCoon]

Won't take much to boycott Ford. They make [censored] cars that nobody wants to drive.

[cjd]

In parts of the United States Ford and General Motors are still very strong. As  said in my earlier post I would not buy a car that is produced by an offshore company. As a life long owner of Chrysler cars I was quite sad when Daimler took control of Chrysler Corporation. I will no longer buy cars from that company. Henry Ford for all his evil ways also did a great deal of good for the average man in America.  Henry Ford and Walter Chrysler started out as average American workers Chrysler a locomotive mechanic for the railroad and Ford also came from humble beginnings. Ford made it possible for working people to own a car when it was something only the very rich could own. I now drive Ford cars and have over the years owned some used imports for a second car as well. My current Ford puts them all to shame it has over 200K on it and has never had a part replaced on it except for maintenance. Id like to see how many rice burners can match that.

[americankahanist]

The auto industry is a microcosm of the nation as a whole and we are letting it happen to ourselves.

[cjd]

The auto industry is a microcosm of the nation as a whole and we are letting it happen to ourselves.

You have it exactly right! It happened in the electronics companies in the 70s and 80s. And its now happening to the auto industry. America had some of the best electronics in the world made by American workers with pride. The industry shipped the  work to Japan and other countries where the labor price was cheaper. Emerson  Electronics had an enormous plant right  in New Jersey not far from the Meadow Lands. Thousands of factory workers in that industry lost good paying jobs when many of the companies started producing off shore . Many of the companies are still in business however they produce nothing here in the USA any longer. Even Japans labor rates are too high and now quite a bit of this product is now being produced in China and other rice bowl countries.
The unfair edge the foreign car companies have  is that  American car companies were trying to pay their workers the good salaries, benefits and retirement  Americans workers are  accustom to. The foreign car companies have plants in this country however pay nothing close to what Ford, General Motors were paying and pay little benefits or retirement. 
 As less and less is produced here in this country what jobs will be available to average workers that don't require 70 hour work weeks to make a decent living. Why should  we as Americans be bought down to third world levels in our standards of living.

[Johnson Brown]

There are only 2 big American auto companies, Chrysler is German.
Another Bush mistake by not helping them from the unfair competition.
Asia markets are closed to a lot of American goods but they can send all they want here.

[fjack]

The end of GM and Ford is coming soon. Intel is opening up a computer chip manufacturing plant in Vietnam. Vietnam is not well know for being a high wage payer or providing for a worker friendly paradise.

The American Car Companies have been saddled by affrimative action hiring, civil rights law suits, union corruption, all kinds of taxes, tariffs, sexaul harassment suits, extortions from the national association for the anniliation of white people and je$$e's rainbow push (people united to swindle humanity).

We had a Japanese teacher in college that was a big wig in toyota who told us to notice, the fact that where toyota builds its plants in America, they are in white areas where you had to look long and hard for blacks. They kept out the unions and were not hounded by affrimation action addicts. I am sure that this government will find a way to destroy toyota and any other company in the near future. By doing this, we have no manufacturing jobs in the USA unless you consider manufacturing hispanics and blacks turning out bastard, future warriors.