A big reason for these going to America has little if anything to do with exchange rates.
What the French, German and other foriegn companies are trying to do is get away from the outrageous benefits given to France, German and other Euro countries.
Like 2-4 weeks off at Christmas besides 4-6 weeks off for vacation, 3-6 months of family leave for new babies and on down the line besides health insurance costs which make ours look cheap.
In the last decade I did some consulting for some health care firms. One had been headquartered in France and Germany. The CEO and board had moved most research and backup/services to America.
I asked the CEO how they could afford that, and he said simple. I can hire a top Gene Splitter in America for about the same basic salary in Europe. He/She will work 48 to 50 weeks a year versus less than 40 weeks in Europe with excellent American Health Benefits at about 1/3 the cost of insurance in Europe.
They were planning to move most production to America for the same reasons.
Also, the pay and benefits were so good for Americans, the American workers didn’t want to mess with unions.
There were tax benefits, also, that he didn’t want to go into.
“There is also a certain attraction to productive, relatively literate, 40-hour-a-week workers who don’t take three months’ vacation and don’t go on strike every time the government says something the unions don’t like. OTOH, every single one of the workers in Europe speaks a foreign language... ;-)”
Exactly. I had not read your reply when I made a reply with similiar comments:
A big reason for these going to America has little if anything to do with exchange rates.
What the French, German and other foriegn companies are trying to do is get away from the outrageous benefits given to France, German and other Euro countries.
Like 2-4 weeks off at Christmas besides 4-6 weeks off for vacation, 3-6 months of family leave for new babies and on down the line besides health insurance costs which make ours look cheap.
In the last decade I did some consulting for some health care firms. One had been headquartered in France and Germany. The CEO and board had moved most research and backup/services to America.
I asked the CEO how they could afford that, and he said simple. I can hire a top Gene Splitter in America for about the same basic salary in Europe. He/She will work 48 to 50 weeks a year versus less than 40 weeks in Europe with excellent American Health Benefits at about 1/3 the cost of insurance in Europe.
They were planning to move most production to America for the same reasons.
Also, the pay and benefits were so good for Americans, the American workers didn’t want to mess with unions.
There were tax benefits, also, that he didn’t want to go into.”