Posted on 05/09/2007 1:37:31 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
We already have a free trade barrier nobody remembers in our safety, environmental and insurance (you thought 5mph bumpers were for safety?) rules for cars. Europe has stricter requirements than we do, but ours are different, and that’s a barrier to the importation of a lot of nice, safe, fuel efficient cars.
The only pain I feel is sympathy for those trying to support a family who will loose their job because of such horrible business practices/decisions.
The attitude reminds me of students here (and I am sure in most schools): I cannot compete, so why try?
The US practically pioneered the auto industry - and Henry Ford led the way. I would imagine he is rolling in the grave over “his” company and its demise.
But what it all boils down to - the US auto industry is a slave to the union. The union has bargained, used the strike, and generally bullied their way into a wage and benefit structure that the industry cannot pay for - and yet they still have to do R&D and generate excitement among consumers...And let us not forget Quality Control which has been an on again/off again problem for the US makers for the last 35 years.
Only one US maker has at least looked like it was making an effort - and that may be partially due to the “parent” company that is now trying to spin it off (Chrysler/Daimler). But what is funny - Benz QC has dropped in the last decade as well...
And all the while, the Japs and Koreans are building factories over here, employing our people, and making what is, for the most part, a superior product - and making a profit. So we have the workers, we have the resources - but the old “Big Three” just don’t have the will.
Of course - corporate welfare might be part of the issue - they all can still clearly remember the Chrysler bailout a few decades back...
I think a change in scenery sometimes does wonders for a business, stimulating creativity and consequently its profits.
I’d like to see GM move out of socialist Michigan. It would make our governor, Jennifer Granholm (Communist - Michigan), spit out hairballs. I think it’s still a good company with potential to re-take the No. 1 spot.
Ford, I believe, is lost and should concentrate on building Marxist shuttle buses, moving Detroit welfare bums and bureaucrats from saloon, to welfare office, to dollar store and back home. Every six months or so Ford should drive a bus across the Mackinaw bridge during a gale and get blown over the side to create a fishing blind, just to keep its brand name in the public’s mind. Ford - better walleye fishing for you. I’d like to see Ford stuff worms in the ashtrays with retractable fishing poles in place of headlights.
I think they should move to Texas.
Ain’t just the unions. Ford, GM and Chrysler built some lousy cars and some crummy engines. The unions might have made these things more expensive than they had to be, but they made them just as lousy as they were designed.
Works for me.
I’d also require that Texas take ownership of the Upper Peninsula. Great walleye fishing. Average summer temperature - 75 day and 55 at night. How does the UP of Texas sound to you? I’m not sure how we’d work the UP into the Texas state song, but I’m sure UP rhymes with something in Texas.
“, but I’m sure UP rhymes with something in Texas.’
Yup.
“Why free trade in autos gets a Big 3 yawn”
That’s because no one understands what free trade is. And free trade is not NAFTA, or WTO or the EU.
I believe I’m near the last person in Michigan who understands what free trade is, when I traded a bottle of homemade wine and two pounds of kielbasa for my neighbor’s roundnose shovel, without filling out a government form, without an unelected bureaucrat checking a rule book and not reporting the transaction to the IRS.
(I could have used dollars, but the neighbor preferred the above stated terms.)
Danger, danger. The last time I illustrated something like the above as an example of “free trade,” in response to a comment that “true free trade doesn’t exist,” I was accosted with the notion that “free-traders” advocate criminal behavior. The protectionists were quite smug about it, also.
Yeah, what’s up with that? All auto manufacturers buy their competitors’ products and take them apart, piece by piece. At worst, the Big Three should’ve been churning-out two or three-year-old Honda designs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.