Posted on 07/05/2010 1:59:25 PM PDT by starczar66
China has become the top sales market for General Motors, the iconic American automaker owned by U.S. taxpayers.
Through the first six months of the year GM and its Chinese joint venture partners have sold 1.21 million vehicles in China, the company announced Friday. Its U.S. sales, announced Thursday, came in at 1.08 million...
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
And look what we’ve gotten . . . over priced, crappy motorcycles, and a firm that’s destined for a bailout.
Of course.
Not wanting to watch a relative handful of people with questionable loyalties, profit from selling everything of value in America to those who wish us harm.
Is so insulting to the flag generations of brave Americans steadfastly fought to keep strong and safe.
From the very sort of existential foreign threats as - for example a technologically advanced, massively wealthy communist adversary with over one billion people, you want to sell our nation’s technology, factories and jobs to.
What could possibly go wrong.
/this space intentionally left sarcastic
At which point China will wonder why it can't just take over american businesses located in their country completely. Maybe find some pathetic excuse to jail the american businessmen just for spite and install communist sympathizers in their place.
Karma and all that.
What comes around goes around.
Of course. No one is loyal but you. There, there . . . have a cookie.
Looks like Obama bailed out a Chinese company.
The Chinese must have to pay through the nose for these.
Makes ya wanna go right out and buy a Chinese car, doesn’t it? The quality must be just built right in.
Obvious. China is used to buying crappy government-made cars.
You are right, but we have to remember the purpose
of the unions. The UAW was simply the instrument that
was used to transfer the largest corporation in the
world for decades to a foreign adversary. With out
a union, GM could have made layoffs, furloughs, cutbacks,
downsizing, firings, etc. to make it competitive in
the world market. The legacy costs from union membership
and family obligations made that impossible.
Let’s see- start working at a GM plant at age 18.
Work thirty years. Retire at 48 y.o.
Draw very costly retirement benefits and medical for forty
more years. Draining the company of well over any
worth that he added to the company. Multiply by a factor
of millions, you have recipe for a sure death. But,
if you transfer your remaining capital to a non-union
country, then you can attempt to put it back together
under another flag. NLRB, was the single most destructive
bureaucracy (so-called independent agency) ever instituted
by our federal government. This happened in 1934, and
you know who was in office- FDR. Our now second most
socialist president ever. We got to hold on until
November. God help us all, if we do not take back both
houses.
HMMMMM..let me guess...you are setup pretty yourself somehow, either retired or off the grid in some remote location with solar panels and a pot belly stove or you are a self loather hippy who doesn't need hot water for a bath anyway.
To heck with the rest of us suckers..eh RB?
Who gives a crap about future generations..you got yours and now its time to shut the door behind you and leave the rest of the crappy world behind.
Well I got news for you..we ain't gonna die or starve to death for your sick little fantasy... today or tomorrow.
You want global trade and a global government to go with it..then make it fair so everyone lives or STHU.
If the trend continues, General Motors will be known as China Motors. Good job, UAW.
No, you have merely chanced-upon an argument that’s been going for years. The fact of the matter is, we do not have free trade with China, I am not in favor of free trade with China, and anyone who claims otherwise is either full of BS, or knows better and simply is trying to score rhetorical points over the bodies of people who don’t know any better.
Made for commies by commies.
Oh, and let me add, you’ll need to find someone else to blame for being a loser. I had nothing to do with it.
This is no more than the current point in a trend, with global GM sales, that was evident as early as 2007, when a model of the Chevrolet brand was the largest selling model in China and a Buick model was the largest car in the “luxury” class.
This was before the financial crisis, before the GM bankruptcy, before their present major financial partners (U.S. Treasury).
The only thing today’s news on this matter presents is NOT reflective of anything in particular about GM’s current financial structure, but just a continuation of its marketing success in China. No matter how much of it’s production for the Chinese market occurs in China, the profits are GM’s. So, what is your complaint really about?
I haven't looked at GM's EDGAR filings in a long time, but I would be surprised if much (if any) of these "profits" are repatriated.
I believe that GM's sales in China are actually under joint ventures with Chinese partners ("New GM" now has less than a 50% stake in each of these, I believe), and the ostensible profits are mostly retained by the JVs.
In their most recent 10-Q (you should be able find it by browsing through http://www.gm.com/corporate/investor_information/sec/), I didn't see anything about large amounts of profits from these ventures; in fact, on page 71, the 10-Q says "The increase in vehicle sales related to our China joint ventures is not reflected in Total net sales and revenue as China joint venture revenue is not consolidated in our financial results."
However, I haven't kept up with GM, and certainly the split between "New GM" and "Old GM" doesn't help the clarity of these filings. I think that we have at least a few posters who know quite a bit about GM's international operations, some maybe one of them will chime in.
I would argue, without looking, that hardly none of the profits are repatriated. Which would leave a rational person to look at our tax code, instead of yammering about “free trade.”
The secret plan is to sell China lots of crappy GM cars so they can’t get to work and keep their GDP growth at 9% [vs our anemic 2% if we’re lucky]!!?
“China insisted the cars sold in China, be made there.
Which country, America or China, is now doing ever better in trade and manufacturing?.”
On this particular score, you make a very good point.
What should be done, with respect to the manufacturing conditions that China insists on with foreign manufacturers?
We can impose two conditions on China.
Matching conditions in China, “Chinese” manufacturers, seeking sales in the domestic U.S. market, could be required to move their operations to the U.S., in “joint ownership” ventures where the U.S. partner has 51% or more of the principal ownership rights.
But, out of respect for our domestic “free market” economy, those “Chinese” manufacturers would be required to NOT have any element of the Chinese government as owners, part-owners or in any aspect of controlling, operational interest in the company.
We would either massively reduce Chinese imports, or force even more “liberalization” of their economy; but at least “free trade” would be “more equal” trade, more balanced trade.
I am generally a free trader, but we do have to interject some common sense into our trade policies. And, it's tough to have discussions about trade policy absent discussions about the labor market and labor laws (and other regulations) in this country.
I was reading my some of my Apple SEC filings, and their primary OEM, Foxconn caught my eye. Their main assembly location in China employs hundreds of thousands of people - in one location. It's a shame that a great company like Apple can't build those iPhones, iPods and iPads in this country. But, if they did, the prices would probably be 4 to 5 times the current retail price, and of course no one would buy them, so there would be no market; No market, no jobs.
It's a vicious catch-22. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but transferring the kind of wealth we are to both the Chinese and the Arab states isn't going to be sustainable for much longer.
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