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What a bunch of blithering Bull SH*t

When was the last time anyone bought much of anything made in Japan?

Even the Japanese cars are made in the USA. For example Honda's sold in the USA are made in a huge plant in Marysville, Ohio. Honda plants in the USA employ 24,000 people in manufacturing and its dealers employ another 120,000 Americans.

The same is true for all car makers. Even European cars like BMW are made in the USA. BMW's are made in Greenville South Carolina. Sony TV's are made in the USA. It costs too much to make them in Japan. We make Honda windows in Ohio and send them to Japan to be put in Japanese cars.

Most of our imports come from Canada, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Mexico.

The primary reason jobs go off shore has little to do with labor costs. For mass produced products labor represents less than 1/3 of the cost. For most manufacturers in the USA government taxes and government regulations cost far more than even double time labor.

We are at the beginning of a new age. The last major change was the industrial revolution. It began with the printing press that revolutionized the decimation of information. But it resulted in the mechanized assembly line.

The industrial revolution also destroyed 94 percent of the jobs held by farmers. In 1903 96 percent of our population worked on farm related jobs. Today that is less than 2 percent.

By 1950 50 percent of our work force was in manufacturing. By 2050 less than 2 percent of Americans will be working in manufacturing. If we had followed the William Jennings Bryan idiots that hated the industrial revolution either Hitler or Stalin or both would have conquered us.

Fools like this author want to stay in 1950.. with working class families living in houses of 900 square feet. With one used car per working class family. With enough money to eat out perhaps twice a year. With one week vacations spent at home. With very limited clothes budgets and next to no luxuries. Back then 90 percent of the working class children were unable to afford college.

The days of unskilled workers doing boring jobs on assembly lines are nearly over. In they haydays of the industrial USA factory workers lived little better than todays McJobs holders can afford. Thank goodness thay are never coming back.

The assembly line will soon be a computerized manufacturing process. The days of unskilled workers is over. If you want to be an unskilled worker at 1950 wages go to China... they have lots of them.

While you are in China and look at the plants that make the mother boards for your computer. They are totally automated. They have no unskilled workers The plant is in China and hires skilled Chinese because our government makes building such a plant here impossible.

And if you think that Japan is an industrial power, I invite you to go to the king of importers, WALMART, and try to find somethings that says "Made in Japan."

You won't find much.

Another thing to consider as well is that if these situations lead to dependencies, they are mutual dependencies. We might rely heavily on goods manufactured in China, but China relies heavily on our money, which we pay for those goods, and which ultimately must be used to purchase things produced in the United States. Such dependencies, in my opinion, make war between the mutually dependent nations far less likely.

Excellent Post #13

"Honda plants in the USA employ 24,000 people in manufacturing and its dealers employ another 120,000 Americans."

....while the value added parts that go into these vehicles, that generates trickle down to the economy, is made outside of the country. Aren't these the low skilled assembly line jobs you mentions later?

"For most manufacturers in the USA government taxes and government regulations cost far more than even double time labor."

.....agree. This is the major problem. We can compete on the labor side with automation, but it is easier to send it to China. The CEO's pocket the savings and the employees get the shaft.

Fools like this author want to stay in 1950.. with working class families living in houses of 900 square feet. With one used car per working class family. With enough money to eat out perhaps twice a year. With one week vacations spent at home. With very limited clothes budgets and next to no luxuries. Back then 90 percent of the working class children were unable to afford college.

.....In the 50's one person working could support a family. All these "so-called" luxeries and college you mention = the the massive debt and the mortgaging of future a lot of families are experiencing.

"While you are in China and look at the plants that make the mother boards for your computer. They are totally automated. They have no unskilled workers The plant is in China and hires skilled Chinese because our government makes building such a plant here impossible."

.....all of manufacturing is not low skilled jobs. It takes engineers to design the products and machinery to make it. It takes managers...techinicians...accounting...etc. You need to buy tooling and materials from other companies to make the product. We have a lot of skilled and educated people that were once employed by manufacturing.

Japan is not the industrial power and niether is the US now. It is now China and we will be dependent on them soon to everything from commodity to military products. Buying from a communist country that wants us destroyed is stupid. Besides that how about all of the intellectual properties we are giving away. We are giving away what we created and out country as well.

In they haydays of the industrial USA factory workers lived little better than todays McJobs holders can afford.

Got anything to back that up?

You are confusing a few things, while you make a few good points.

My sister works for Honda. Those windows you make here, stay here for American Honda, that is what I was told.

As for Farmers, most didnt need the larger farms or massive workers due to mechanical progress since 1900, the plows, combines, fertilizers, etc. Frewer people ran larger farms.

And many of us worked boring manufacturing jobs, only we didnt starve doing it. We made good money. Reagan was good for manufacturing up here in Ct. We had a boom unseen before or since.

As for being unskilled and on an assembly line, that already passed awway, only guess what? It passed out the country, also. I know of only a few companies that I have worked for that still have assembly lines in the US, one is Duracell who I work for now, as a temp (as usual), who ALMOST moved their entire line to China...until SARS kicked up!

Never thought I'd be glad for a plague!

Even the Japanese cars are made in the USA. For example Honda's sold in the USA are made in a huge plant in Marysville, Ohio. Honda plants in the USA employ 24,000 people in manufacturing and its dealers employ another 120,000 Americans.

Better rephrase this comment, substitute "made" with the word "Assembled". The effect on the American economy would be much greater if they were "made" here. This plant is merely Americans putting tab A into Flap B. It is cheaper for the Japs to import parts to assemble them here then it is to import a whole car. Now, if the parts were made here, you'd have something. This goes for the TOYota plant in Tennessee. None of the parts in these cars are made in U.S.A. so get that American flag off your Toyota and stop making believe you support American workers.

Fools like this author want to stay in 1950.. with working class families living in houses of 900 square feet. With one used car per working class family. With enough money to eat out perhaps twice a year. With one week vacations spent at home. With very limited clothes budgets and next to no luxuries. Back then 90 percent of the working class children were unable to afford college.

This paragraph shows just how out of touch you are with reality in America. Relatively few people live in 2700 sq. ft. homes in the suburbs with three new cars in the garage and college savings plans filled to the financial limit for their two children.

Where I live in Philadelphia, both in the city and outside of it, many people do not live vastly better than what you describe. Those 900 and 1200 sq. ft. houses are still around, and lots of new ones are still being built (called "townhouses" and "condominiums" now, instead of "rowhomes"). All those used cars are still around too. And most people who go to college can only go to college by placing themselves into significant debt. Most people's vacations are nothing more spectacular than a week at the beach or the mountains.

kobe beef is raised in the US!

Bought SRAMs lately?