Posted on 09/18/2016 4:20:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I don't think so, just excessive taxes forcing low wages and more.
The key here is that they're moving the production of the Ford Focus in particular to Mexico, because that's their compact car model. What's happened is that fuel efficiency and safety standards have added so much to the cost of a car that Ford can't sell the Focus at a competitive price -- and by "competitive" I don't mean competitive with other automakers, I mean competitive with other Ford models.
When you take a $16,000-$20,000 car and add all of the mandated features to it, it becomes a $20,000-$25,000 car. As a result, many customers who would have been in the market for a compact car like the Focus end up paying a few thousand dollars more for a mid-sized Fusion. The end result is that Ford can't sell enough units of the Focus to keep their average fleet efficiency above the level mandated by the EPA, unless they're willing to sell them at a loss.
Ford is moving the Focus production to Mexico because it's the only way they can make them dirt-cheap enough to set the pricing at the compact car level here in the U.S.
Go figure.
OSHA, EPA, EEOC, FTA, DOT, NTSB, DOE, IRS, SEC, and I am just starting. Then replicate these petty tyrants at the state level. Now let’s layer on the free industrialized world’s most oppressive tax scheme and lawsuit happy legal system. The only wonder is why anybody makes anything here.
If you have never owned or ran a substantial business then you have no idea.
Do not blame Ford, Mexico, or China. If we had a modicum of free enterprise and a rational tax and regulatory regime the US would dominate the world and have jobs enough for all willing workers.
Yup. Mexican labor isn’t a great thing. American tech rep’s don’t like traveling there, safety issues. International manufacturing dealings add complexity. Hopefully your conjecture is on target.
I know Jim Rob thinks highly of Mark Levin, but I think he has shown himself to be a tool.
Exactly.
I’m union, and pull into memberships meetings with my Trump bumper sticker proudly in front of the door.
Voted Republican my entire life. Last GOP vote this time...unless Trump wins. Otherwise, I’m retiring and going Gault.
I thought highly of Mark for almost 20 years, then he stated to insult my integrity and intelligence, and he has not stopped it yet. Now I hear he is having Glenn Beck on his show now as well.
“Yup. Mexican labor isnt a great thing. American tech reps dont like traveling there, safety issues. International manufacturing dealings add complexity.”
I agree. International travel sounds exotic and a lot of fun, but no doubt it gets old fast, even for execs. Not to mention having to bribe officials (and face US jail time if caught), and just the disruption in life.
When manufacturing started leaving here, it was simply because our system (i.e., government, with help from the unions) no longer supported competitive manufacturing.
Preach it, FRiend.
There are a couple of posters who haunt these threads who just love all those nanny state agencies.
They loooove them so very very much that they want the USA to put up big tariffs to protect us from all those evil foreign counties who aren't lucky enough to have caring, meticulous, ever-watchful government bureacracies such as those we are blessed with here in the good old USA.
I am surprised none of them have shown up here yet.
You want the union to grow?
I don’t think Ford realizes Trump has a very long memory and he’s NOT going to forget this kind of crap...
DUH!
It would take tremendous resources to do it, but, given the resources, there is no reason such a venture could not be successful. The business models are there. One such is Subaru, in Indiana, who can barely keep up with their own success.
Then if we could get the freakin' gov't less in the way, such success could be doubled or tripled in short order.
Subaru sells crate engines, even entire drivetrains. I’m aware of several specialty vehicle companies that use them.
The Sube flat four is an excellent engine, springboard off of that and cost of development would be considerably lower.
Move to manufacturing drivetrains after the vehicle is established and selling.
It does seem like most of the primary opponents had little interest in job woes of the typical American. But can the typical American figure all of this out?
Go figure.”
Yeah, I’ve noticed that auto price inflation isnt, for lack of a better term, linear. What cars cost is a reflection of meddling by people who hate them and the freedom they represent.
Sitting on the world’s largest deposits of carbon energy, abundant freshwater, mostly great climate zones, huge deposits of minerals, two oceans, and surrounded by two friendly countries.
And we need protection from foreign manufacturer’s?
Glad to hear from someone who values freedom.
In effect, a policy of massive tariffs on imports is nothing more than a subsidy for all of those nanny-state agencies.
Those are good points. However...
I recall very well the last round of increased Federal fuel efficiency and safety standards. Some of my car buddies (enthusiasts who have made “automotive” their vocation in one way or another: some are engineers, all are very knowledgeable regarding the “tech”, and are all quite successful people) and I were discussing the then proposed requirements. I asked, basically, “Given these standards, how on earth are the “Big Three” going to be able to make affordable, reliable cars that an average person can afford? Is the “tech” there?” The answers were basically “can’t be done” and “no”. (This is not to say that the “tech” is not impressive — the fuel efficiency some fairly hefty vehicles get, these days, is almost amazing, given their size. But, even that comes with reliability and other compromises aside from the $$ costs. Some compromises are non-tech, too: The roof of our Ford Explorer is so thin it’s scary. And it’s an “’08”.)
Anyway, at the time, the auto mfgr’s went along with the new requirements with barely a squawk. I can almost see why the players like Subaru, Toyota, etc., would go along, as their competitive advantage would increase. But why could not Ford, for example, take 5% of the huge advertising budget that they use to oversaturate the market, and explain to consumers that the new standards would force them to move production of some models out of the US? It’s not like Ford execs are too stupid to realize it...
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