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Doesn’t the United States make anything anymore?
The Buffalo News ^ | 2/17/2009 | Stephen Manning

Posted on 02/17/2009 5:12:29 PM PST by BfloGuy

The U. S. by far remains the world’s leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 — nearly double the $811 billion in 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China’s factories, America generates $2.50.

(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: china; manufacturing; unitedstates
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To: palmer

You are preferring to advocate income taxes.


421 posted on 02/20/2009 9:33:14 AM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: hedgetrimmer

You must not be a Fair Taxer.


422 posted on 02/20/2009 9:35:12 AM PST by palmer (Cooperating with Obama = helping him extend the depression and implement socialism.)
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To: palmer

Which transnational corporation are you favoring with your comments?


423 posted on 02/20/2009 10:00:49 AM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: hedgetrimmer

Since I just bought a new Ford, I would have to say them. They are a transnational company.


424 posted on 02/20/2009 10:09:40 AM PST by palmer (Cooperating with Obama = helping him extend the depression and implement socialism.)
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To: palmer
Since I just bought a new Ford, I would have to say them. They are a transnational company.

More like a chinese company, which makes it all the more repulsive that they are asking congress for bailout bribes to stay operational in this country.

They moved offshore to help China achieve dominance as the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Could not have done so without the support of "free traders".

While engaging in business with china, due to the Chinese constitution, the chinese communist government owns 50% of the company, so the Chinese communist government is now an active partner in a so-called american company. Ford uses its false identity as an american company to stick the taxpayers for billions in bailout money. The worst is they have no intention of keeping a business entity here unless the government subsidizes them, just like the chinese government is doing in china.

This is called corporatist fascism, and it is a direct result of "free trade" policies and the "free trade" end game.

When the financial troubles were acknowledged by our government in September 2008, the Chinese president stepped up and said the US should follow THEIR economic model. Apparently Obama and the congress listened. Ford is no more an american company than any other foreign company with ownership by communist regimes. Yet look at all the influence they have in congress. You remember, you're the one who doesn't want citizens to influence congress, what about chinese communist owned ford motor company?
425 posted on 02/20/2009 11:20:06 AM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: hedgetrimmer
You remember, you're the one who doesn't want citizens to influence congress, what about chinese communist owned ford motor company?

Chinese owned? News to me. I thought their shares are public? The employees are Americans, I think the parts mostly American. The owners are Americans. I don't have any problem with them lobbying for handouts, but I oppose those handouts.

But you are really not addressing the fact that your theory of citizens lobbying Congress for tariffs is a nonstarter. Completely idealistic and unworkable.

426 posted on 02/20/2009 11:39:37 AM PST by palmer (Cooperating with Obama = helping him extend the depression and implement socialism.)
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To: palmer
"The basis of the socialist economic system of the People's Republic of China is socialist public ownership of the means of production, namely, ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by the working people. The system of socialist public ownership supersedes the system of exploitation of man by man; it applies the principle of 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his work'." "During the primary stage of socialism, the State adheres to the basic economic system with the public ownership remaining dominant and diverse sectors of the economy developing side by side, and to the distribution system with the distribution according to work remaining dominant and the coexistence of a variety of modes of distribution."
CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

"free traders" pretend to be naive about what it means to do business with China and other communist/socialist/totalitarian countries. You emphasize 'cheap' prices, but you never address the horrible cost to American freedom and independence.

But you are really not addressing the fact that your theory of citizens lobbying Congress for tariffs is a nonstarter. Completely idealistic and unworkable.

That's globalist speaking on behalf of foreign governments, IMO. Who says the constitution is idealistic and unworkable? The people who want to destroy it.
427 posted on 02/20/2009 12:27:54 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: palmer
ChangAn Automobile Group Co., Ltd. Company Profile Driving in traffic can be anything but peaceful, unless you're in a ChangAn Auto manufactured car. ChangAn (which means perpetual peace in Chinese) is China's fourth largest automaker. Formerly a military-run auto parts supplier, ChangAn builds vehicles under its own brand, including sports cars, sedans, minivans, and sport utility vehicles. It also makes commercial and public transit buses, cargo vans and trucks, ambulances, police cars, and postal vans. Through a partnership with Ford, it manufactures the Mondeo and Fiesta; through an alliance with Suzuki, it builds the Gazelle OK, Happy Prince, and City Baby passenger cars. ChangAn exports its cars to Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Syria, and the US.

Also,

FAW Group Corp., one of China's three largest domestic auto manufacturers, has begun selling new cars for as little as $6,550 in Mexico in what is believed to be the first foray by a Chinese auto-maker into North America...China's central government, which controls FAW, has been pushing the export of Chinese-made vehicles. The cars have made their way into the Middle East, the former Soviet block countries, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

In Mexico, Chinese car companies may have found a beachhead into the continent. Ford Motor Co.'s former top executive in Mexico, Kathleen Ligocki, heads the Grupo Salinas auto unit that sells the FAW cars.

Treason, trade treachery and "free trade" all go hand in hand.
428 posted on 02/20/2009 12:40:10 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: hedgetrimmer

I agree with everything you say we have ceded our sovereignty to other countries as result of free trade.


429 posted on 02/21/2009 5:27:09 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: ColdWater

One word...AIG-stock was trading for under 30 cents yesterday...you will never see one dime of the 150 billion (treasury and tarp) given to this company. You have a chance with GM...none with the banks. As we have discussed, American needs more manufacturing not less...this depression/recession has made this quite clear...save GM and other manufacturers for a better day and help America once again be a prosperous strong country.


430 posted on 02/21/2009 5:29:53 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: razorback-bert

Baloney...Hersey can pay their workers nothing and that’s what it always comes down to...I don’t think they will like manufacture in Mexico so much...GM found out just how miserable it is to manufacture in there...no matter. I will never buy another Hershey product again. I don’t need candy...heck I make delicious candy better than anything the Mexicans can produce...Mexico is literally a sewer...they have no public health requirements...thus I will eat nothing from there. I want labeling on all products...you want to move out of this country fine,tell me where you are so I can decide if I want to buy your traitor products...I will buy very little.


431 posted on 02/21/2009 5:34:31 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: ColdWater

The figure I provided came from Walmart management...yeah so I guess you are incorrect. It is a fact that my state-Ohio- pays for food stamps, health care and provides housing subsidies to Walmart employees...why should I as a taxpayer have to subsidize Walmart and watch these employees being conditioned for socialism...you better believe Walmart wants socialism, it will increase their profits. However, it’s bad for American.


432 posted on 02/21/2009 5:38:48 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: nyconse
WITH are you ranting about, I didn't ask a thing or say a thing about Hershey.

Anyway, your wrong if you think candy manufactures benefit from the sugar tariff, please try again.

433 posted on 02/21/2009 6:44:56 AM PST by razorback-bert (Will trade sex for ammo)
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To: nyconse

Let me quote directly from General Motors Manufacturing and Human Resources website :

The total of both cash compensation and benefits provided to GM hourly workers in 2006 amounted to approximately $73.26 per active hour worked. This total is made of two main components: cash compensation ($39.68) and benefit/government required programs ($33.58).

The average annual cash compensation for hourly employees in 2006 was $39.68 per hour. Included in average earnings are straight-time pay, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), night-shift premiums, overtime premiums, holiday and vacation pay. In 2003, GM workers logged 41,363 (hours in 000’s) in overtime hours for an average of 371 hours per worker; in 2004, 39,409 overtime hours for an average of 374 hours per worker; in 2005, 33,555 overtime hours for an average of 337 hours per worker; and in 2006, 27,265 overtime hours for an average of 315 hours per worker.

Benefit/government required programs in 2006 added an additional $33.58 for each active hour worked. These costs include: group life insurance, disability benefits, and Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB), Job Security (JOBS), pensions, unemployment compensation, Social Security taxes, and hospital, surgical, prescription drug, dental, and vision care benefits.


434 posted on 02/21/2009 7:05:19 AM PST by razorback-bert (Will trade sex for ammo)
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To: razorback-bert

Link? Number one my husband works for GM so I know for a fact that the number you describe includes legacy-he has done payroll...you take the cost of health care, wages, retirement of all GM workers-former and current, next you divide by the number of current workers. Thus the cost of former workers is used in this calculation. the excerpt I provided for you showing how these figures are calculated does not even take in the new contracts...new hires start at $14.00 per hour...since GM has bought out many and laid off many more higher wage workers, they will be hiring the low cost employees during any upturn in sales-no call backs.

The New York Times told readers that GM’s autoworkers are paid $70 an hour (including health care and pension). This is not true. The base pay is about $28 an hour. If health care cost per worker average $12,000 per year, that adds in another $6 an hour. If the pension payment takes up 25 percent of base pay (an extremely high pension), that gets you another $7 an hour, bringing the total to $41 an hour. That’s decent pay, but still a long way from $70 an hour. Again, you have to be an American manufacturing hater to provide false information as many times as you have.

‘How does the NYT get from $41 to $70? Well the trick is to add in GM’s legacy costs, the pension and health care costs for retired workers. These legacy costs are a serious expense for GM, but this is not money being paid to current workers. The person on the line in 2008 is not benefiting from these legacy cost’


435 posted on 02/21/2009 7:23:25 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: nyconse

Hard to argue with GM’s own site.

http://www.gm.com/corporate/responsibility/reports/05/500_economic/3_thirty/530.html

In 2004, the last full year for data, GM’s worldwide payrolls from continuing operations totaled $21.5 billion, up from $20.9 billion in 2003. In the United States, hourly payroll totaled $8.7 billion. The average labor cost per hour for the U.S. hourly work force, which includes both wages and benefits, was $73.73 in 2004.


436 posted on 02/21/2009 7:33:12 AM PST by razorback-bert (Will trade sex for ammo)
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To: razorback-bert

These figures are from 2004 and do not include restructuring give backs by unions (2006 and 2008 contracts). Also, they include all workers including management who make higher salaries than unions...you know engineers, upper management and so on...GM. This includes the GMAC workers as well who make considerably more than union (or used to)....can you really look at those figures and believe this represents what a union person takes home or receives in benefits?...the UAW now manages health care for union as well-began in 2007. Management has taken pay cuts and had benefits reduced since those figures as well Again, you want to believe your own propaganda...I always wonder why you GM haters never mention the banker’s salaries?


437 posted on 02/21/2009 7:50:48 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: razorback-bert

I am hoping for sanity in the coming years concerning trade...where companies like Hershey are charged Tariffs as well as other foreign competitors. You know when these companies move, they often don’t even pay American taxes as there is a loophole which allows them to pretty much eliminate taxes with off shoring.


438 posted on 02/21/2009 7:53:27 AM PST by nyconse (When you buy something, make an investment in your country. Buy American or bye bye America)
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To: nyconse
So, you don't know who benefits from the sugar tariffs?

It is not users of sugar.

439 posted on 02/21/2009 11:52:25 AM PST by razorback-bert (Will trade sex for ammo)
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To: nyconse

I care nothing about what someone else makes.

GM,and the unions brought this on themselves, I care about the quality of their cars. I have bought over 30 GM products over the years. In 70’s they ticked me off, when I couldn’t tell the differance between Chevys and Caddies,so I quit buying Caddies and bought Olds and Buicks, because I got the same level of luxary for less. My ex’s silver 79 98 the paint came off, so she got a 81 Buick Century, which suffered from overheating and lost the CV joints all under warranty and GM did nothing. We quit GM and went to BMWs with no problems. I bought a Caddy in 91, as friends said they weren’t making them good again, it was a good car, not a great car and when I sold it, I took a bath on the resale.
I was disappointed that once again on a GM product, I had to replace the window switches before 70,000 miles, but they built a winner in the Northstar engine.

American auto problems are of their own creation.


440 posted on 02/21/2009 12:16:32 PM PST by razorback-bert (Will trade sex for ammo)
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