Posted on 06/27/2018 9:24:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When Foxconn breaks ground on Thursday on a $10bn LCD manufacturing complex in Wisconsin, President Donald Trump will be there to claim credit for securing the Taiwanese group’s promise to deliver 13,000 jobs.
But while Mr Trump helps Foxconn celebrate in Racine county, Wisconsin — a key swing district that helped him win the presidency in 2016 — just up the road at Harley-Davidson, executives will be figuring out who will lose their jobs, after the company said it must offshore production to battle retaliatory EU trade tariffs.
That landed Harley in the presidential doghouse. In a series of early morning tweets on Tuesday, Mr Trump lashed out at the company, gleefully forecasting more offshoring will be the “beginning of the end” for the iconic American brand....
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
ft.com appears to be a pay site.
actually, i have no problem with Harley at all. sometimes i wish the President would just take a chill pill. they’re moving to where the labor is. they have to deal with the country where they want to sell.
the problem with the cheap labor express is that they import labor as a quasi gov’t subsidy in order to maximize their profit. after they finish exploiting that labor, legal or illegal, their former workers are then dumped back here on us taxpayers. the company just walks away with profit. meanwhile our entry level workforce is shut out of those opportunities. our indigenous industry is shut down.
If they want cheap labor, they should move their operation to the countries where it is. that’s fine with me.
the cheap labor exploiters can either leave businesses that they can’t sustain with out subsidized illegal or legal cheap labor, or take more reasonable profit and reduce production to fit our local economy, while employing American workers to produce a much higher quality product for the American consumer in America. that improves and maintains American families, culture and society instead of destroying it as these companies now do.
HD acted too quickly. Most of the time the impact of tariffs takes years to filter down, and in this case especially when we know Trump is using them as a negotiating tool to get better trade deals with our key trading partners, it is precipitous to react so early. In fact I suspect HD is using the tariffs as an excuse to pull production out of the US that they’ve wanted to do anyway, as those decisions are not made overnight. This isn’t the first time they’ve threatened and maybe it’s time to let them go and maybe feel some pain.
Are HD customers more closely associated with Trump’s America First policy than globalism?
They didn’t wake up one morning and determine their viability is imperiled because of Trump.
No, a company this size with that many employees had been in negotiations with the country they will manufacture in, settled thingsblime taxes and incentives what the current talent pool is and how many there are to fill specific jobs.
They had to have worked for years to settle on the site, submit business plan, architecture, public infrastructure they will be required to support.
And lastly “Permitting”
If only Harley would build a true competitive bike against the Goldwing. Not a V twin, not a four, but a similar if not better boxer motor, shed the cast iron parts, make it quiet, comfortable, powerful.
To me a die-hard Goldwing owner the next best bike is the Indian or the BMW, the Indian though is good but still a Vtwin.
Harley is hardly the only V twin kid on the American block, with Indian and Victory and no name customs.
Why would Harley need to move all overseas? Build export models overseas.
It’s so much about borrowing the image than knotty issues of trade policy today.
So much more...
Trump is vision driven, but he isn’t always the best to deal with the devils in the details. For that reason alone we ought to be careful to remember “in God we trust” rather than “in Trump we trust.”
I hate to see Harley go, but it looks like it has figured its bread will be better buttered overseas. USA chic. Like a Chinese cowboy.
Harleys ca be tuned to be as quiet as any other bike.
People detune them on purpose.
The harley market of buyers is saturated.
The buyer market numbers are not growing, the demo that buys these are older folks and they have to have a lot of money for a new bike. Lots of harleys used for sale on craigslist.
There is tons of product to chose from and younger riders are nt necessarily drawn to harley bikes.
Bassackwards again! We are implementing retaliatory trade tariffs!
If the Eurowienees keep upping it there will be NO TRADE PERIOD.
Feed em fish heads! Cause they aint gonna get no more bread from US!
13,000 good jobs are nothing to sneeze at.
Those jobs are just those in the initial 200,000 sq ft plant itself. All the suppliers, the housing, the stores, the roads ... everything has to be built. More jobs than can be counted or supplied by WI with its 2.9% unemployment rate.
Foxconn is not just another factory plant, but an entire city. Even Silicon Valley may not be its equal when it is all built.
H-D screwed the pooch bigly here.
Harleys are great if you want to cruise at 58 mph or have your teeth rattle out of your head.
If you want to go fast, there are much better options.
Amen bro. God put Trump where he is. when i occasionally get frustrated with him, i need remember that.
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