To me…the distaste has nothing to do with where it was made…but with the fact we use our tax dollars to bail out GM so they could move good paying manufacturer jobs overseas and then import those goods back. THANKS GM.
I will find the GM bailout distasteful until the day I die. It was wrong on SO many levels.
It should never happen again, and neither should Cash4Clunkers… another total disaster of billions of wasted tax dollars. .
@TwinTurbo The 3 door LG fridges had a habit of catching fire. I hope that problem has been resolved. On the other hand, such long time makes as Frigidaire have a poor reliability record since they are now owned by Electrolux of Sweden.
We have a 22 year old Maytag fridge in perfect condition with no repairs at all. It was bought before Maytag quality went downhill and before Whirlpool bought them out. The Maytag factory in Iowa is now closed and Maytag is now a rebranded Whirlpool make.
Nothing ever stays the same.
Hey, it’s Pearl Harbor Day. Dec. 7. Let’s not forget how we can be blindsided.
True Mike, we can only buy what is provided to us by the stores. If the only thermostats available are made in China, we don’t have much choice. I remember the early days of Walmart with the made in USA tags. And I would agree we need to have a comprehensive review of who, what, when, and why we got into this whole thing by the large corporate folks or maybe the manufacturing brokers, and attempt to turn it around. As far as the Donald goes though, yes he is a jerk, but he is performing a valuable service by saying things that are not PC and no one else will say. I just wish some people would express as much distaste for terrorists who behead people as they do about Republicans.
I’m all for globalization and global economic activity but some of our corporate CEOs would sell us down the river and not even think twice about it as they hopped on their jet for their southern France vacation house.
Interesting though that an article I read yesterday was talking about the major banks are not the ones making the majority of the sub-prime mortgages anymore. Instead its four companies from California with staff that were involved in the old savings and loan debacle. Interesting that its not always the large corporates or banks is all.
As far as the Donald goes though, yes he is a jerk, but he is performing a valuable service by saying things that are not PC and no one else will say. I just wish some people would express as much distaste for terrorists who behead people as they do about Republicans.Unfortunately "The Donald" ISN'T expressing distaste for ISIS...he's expressing distaste for ALL MUSLIMS...BIG DIFFERENCE.
I have no love-loss for GM but this country still manufactures a LOT of product. Second only to China.
https://quandl.com/collections/economics/industrial-production-by-country
If viewed on a per capita basis, we far exceed China given we have 1/4 the population. That said, those jobs have gotten fewer and fewer for a number of reasons. Exporting manufacturing, sure, but automation has taken a lot of those jobs as well. Much like farming in the last century, manufacturing workers are being replaced by automation. In my time at GM, building a car went from 70 labor hours to 25 to build more complicated cars and trucks.
My last employer built forklifts in the US but had plants in Germany and China as well. Their manufacturing process evolved over the last 20 years to reduce the mostly hand-labor by about 1/3. The components were mostly US sourced or built by the company themselves.
US manufacturing is not dead, but the higher paid semi-skilled labor jobs are being reduced every day and replaced by higher paid tech (service) jobs. Don’t forget, engineers, doctors, programmers, lawyers and nurses are all, or can be very good paying “service” jobs.
Good points, @Mustangman , especially regarding automation. Of course I don’t have a degree in macroeconomics, but I wonder how all of the “surplus population” is going to find work and be able to live in the future. Think about all the truck, bus, and cab drivers who will be out of work in another 10 - 20 years when self-driving vehicles become the norm. They’re already phasing out cashiers with automated self–checkouts. Not everybody has the ability or talent to become engineers, doctors, programmers etc. and even if they did, it would drive down wages.
In the future, please refer to “The Donald” as The Next President of the United States.
;-]
Agreed.
Don’t get me started on Maytag. Bought a washer back in 2000. It immediately puked every last drop of transmission fluid onto the basement floor. Repair guy says they are unlikely to authorize fixing it, the oil is only there to reduce noise…don’t you think I want a brand new washer to work as designed AND be quiet?
I don’t put much weight on brand recognition anymore…for anything…
@“Ed Frugal”
Think about all the truck, bus, and cab drivers who will be out of work in another 10 - 20 years when self-driving vehicles become the norm.
There’s nothing new under the sun. Just replace some of your jobs above with those prevalent when the automotive revolution began-
Think about all the farmers growing hay & oats, carriage drivers, and buggy whip makers who will be out of work in another 10 - 20 years when gas powered vehicles become the norm.
I’m sure people were asking the same thing back then. The world evolves. People have to evolve with it or get left in the dust…
“The Donald” ISN’T expressing distaste for ISIS…he’s expressing distaste for ALL MUSLIMS…BIG DIFFERENCE.
…and what he is suggesting is illegal, unconstitutional, and eerily similar to policies put into effect in Germany in the 1930s.
But, just to keep this on an automotive footing…Do you think that he has a driver’s license?
@TwinTurbo : You’re very right. I remember my mom telling me about the guy who invented the sewing machine, his mother and wife and sister begged him not to release it because of all the seamstresses who would be unemployed, and that was what, about the 1840’s? I try and try to stay positive, but the future worries me a great deal, for a variety of reasons (also see the thread about the Paris climate conference, any television version of the 6 o’ clock news, and so on)
Um come on now. Don’t just spew the Whitehouse sound bites. It is quite constitutional to restrict people who have vowed to kill US citizens from coming into this country. In fact it is one of the main duties of the Executive branch. It is also quite constitutional to restrict entry to those who support over-thowing the government and its constitution. Remember those two pages of fine print of subversive organizations on your enlistment application? If you associated with them you couldn’t enlist and were considered enemies of the US. The only thing that has changed is the addition of a few more groups. I believe the Weatherman was one group but I’d have to look. If they were Lutherans, I’d say the same thing but not many Lutherans are chopping peoples heads off at this point and filming it for the world.
Yep though, back then a 40 or 100 acre farm was the norm. Now they are 1 or 2000 acres with machinery. Of course the extra people have moved to the cities out of the country side and families have 5-10 kids to work the farms has decreased.
Don't just spew the Whitehouse sound bites. It is quite constitutional to restrict people who have vowed to kill US citizens from coming into this country.
Sure it is…but are you now saying that ALL MUSLIMS have vowed to kill US citizens? I suggest you listen to “The Donald’s” speeches…because he said ALL MUSLIMS.
No, he said all Muslims “until” we can figure out what is going on. Or how to screen the bad ones out. Figure out a way to screen out the jihadists and no problem but so far the FBI has not been able to demonstrate a way to do this by their own admission. Protecting US citizens is a higher priority than allowing non-US citizens entry. Just seems like common sense self-defense but people like to get hysterical. I wouldn’t let someone in my house if I couldn’t figure out if they were a danger or not.
Just seems like common sense self-defense but people like to get hysterical
EXACTLY…That’s EXACTLY what Trump is doing…getting hysterical…jumping to conclusions…and pandering to the bigots in this country.
How, exactly do cars fit into this???
Well, China is not a Muslim country. Can we bring it back to cars. There is a reason I keep my TV off for the most part.
If the choice was a domestic brand car built in China versus a foreign brand car built in USA, I would probably buy the latter
Assuming both cars were equivalent and equally reliable
but this is hypothetical, because I’m not new car shopping