Honda to build new North America plant (6th - Indiana)

WTHR ^ | 5/16/06 | AP

[bfree]

Since you served in the military I presume you would be dead set against serving under a UN command

Absolutely. See, We do agree on something. The rest of your logic is totally flawed, isolationist nonsense.

[dennisw]

The name of the game is profits and who owns the factory that makes the profits. The Japanese know this even if you don't. Honda and Toyota make automobiles here and their owners (share holders) are predominately Japanese. That's who the profits go to.

[bfree]

Let's see here genius. You forget the taxes paid, wages earned, housing of these employees and the employees spending ALL is in the US. Would you prefer that people buy Hondas imported from Japan? Would you prefer the Americans be out of work? Would you prefer that the spending done by Honda and their employees in America not happen? Your view is far too narrow. The ancillary sending done in the US creates profits for American firms, but your hatred for the Japanese clouds your view of how the economy works. We will never agree, so let's just end this.

[brewer1516]

"You forget the taxes paid, wages earned, housing of these employees and the employees spending ALL is in the US."

Amen brother.

The plant discussed in the article will be built about 30 minutes from my house. My wife and I will be opening a small business that may be affected by the increased commuter traffic going east on I74. Bring it on baby.

dennisw, I still own 2 American built vehicles (used) but may switch in the future.

The sad reality is that American car makers responded too slowly to the competitive threat from Korea and Japan and screwed themselves through poor management and buckling under to pressure from unions. They looked at the numbers and made a business decision to keep the unions rather than take the financial hit and downsize (oh, and moved manufacturing to other countries too).

Any business that doesn't respond to the market and competitive pressure will be in trouble. That's business 101.

Are all your home electronics 100% American made with American components? I doubt it. Even my 100% American made microwave has a magnatron built overseas.

[RedStateRocker]

Respectfully; profits will go where they can be made. As a proud American I believe that my countrymen can do anything as well or better than anyone.

But when it comes to 'management' the Japanese have us beat all to hell. look at the places where Japanese management and American workers make great cars. Where it's American management and American workers and the cars suck, or can't be made profitably blame the damn leadership.

In a sense we have and are outsourcing management; I'd rather have a boss who understood Demming, and stockholders who look at 20 year rather than next quarter timelines,regardless of their nationality, than short sighted morons who only care about the meeting analyst's expectations, regardless of the nationality/race/ethnicity/religious preferences of said owners and management

. IMHO (worth everything you paid for it) the UAW is a *SYMPTOM* rather than a cause of top level bungling. Unions aren't corrupt because they are unions, unions are pretty much as corrupt as any similar sized organizational entity with similar lack of accountability would be.

Would *you* really want to go back to the working conditions of the early industrial age?

[dennisw]

So you too are going to join the rest? It's irrelevant who the profits from automobiles go to? If American shareholders profit-fine. If Japanese shareholders profit - fine.

You go along with other posters that recite how Americans benefit from a Toyota plant here, even though the profits go to the Japanese shareholders? And here I thought capitalism's first order of business was to make profits

[RedStateRocker]

Please tell me what is to prevent Americans from becoming shareholders?

Capitalism knows no color, nationality or boundries. OTOH I hate the Chicoms with a passion and refuse to spend one 'red' cent on anything from China, but the Japanese 'get it' ; you *HAVE* to provide value for money, and workers will take being treated like adults with judgement and passion (witness the ability of ANY lineworker to shut down production vis a vis quality concerns) over being treated like little pawns in the union's chess game, but people who *care* about the work they do kick ass on those who don't.

Betting on Japanese management is like betting on Nigerian marathoners.

I spent not years but decades waiting for Detroit to make a highly fuel efficient highly reliable car, the Japanese have been doing it for 30 years. Now we have to listen to the heads of GM, Ford etc griping about meeting CAFE standars, the Japs are doing it; I read fellow freepers p!sing and moaning about the gawdarful unions and yet Japanese management make money making cars with the same unions and workers; methinks it's A) the management of the American comanies and B) stockholders who expect and demand short term profits instead of the proper mindest of buying a portion of a company that exists for the decades long haul and pummels any management that doesn't show short term gains.

[BurbankKarl]

DETROIT -- Honda Motor Co. of Japan said it has picked an Indiana town to build a $550 million automobile plant, its sixth such assembly factory in North America, in a move that highlights the ambitious growth strategies of Asia-based auto makers while their Detroit competitors move to cut jobs and close plants.

Koichi Kondo, a senior Honda executive, said the Tokyo-based auto maker has chosen the southeastern Indiana town of Greensburg, 80 kilometers southeast of Indianapolis, as a site for the plant that will start producing vehicles by 2008. He said the plant eventually will have capacity to manufacture 200,000 vehicles a year and hire 2,000 workers to run the factory.

[colorado tanker]

My how times change. I remember the hard stares I got when I drove up to a picnic in Indiana in a Nissan (actually, a Datsun) circa 1981. Now they're pro-Honda.