Posted on 06/11/2005 6:46:30 AM PDT by voletti
Korean cars gave Detroit fits in the late '90s by undercutting domestic small cars on price and outdoing them on quality -- then moving up into other segments. Autos from China could provide more lower-cost competition for the Big Three at a time when GM and Ford Motor Co. (F ) are already reeling. That could cost them, along with Chrysler (DCX ), more market share and prod them to move more of their own production offshore.
How fast can the Chinese gear up? The way things are going, it won't take 20 years to match Toyota Motor Corp. (TM ) quality levels, as it did for the Koreans. And with Chinese auto assembly workers earning $2 an hour -- vs. $22 in Korea and nearly $60 in the U.S. for wages and benefits -- it may not be long before China has the wherewithal to start selling competitively priced cars overseas. "The Chinese are probably five or six years away from being able to sell a competent low-end car," says auto analyst Maryann N. Keller.
The Chinese government is putting its heft behind the export push -- subsidizing the export drive of such local players as Chery and giving the likes of Honda big incentives. Beijing also is nudging foreign auto makers to divert investment into export production so local partners can become familiar with managing foreign-exchange risk and global supply chains. It's also pushing domestic companies such as Chery, Geely Auto, Brilliance China Automotive (CBA ), and Shanghai Automotive Industry to develop their own brands overseas.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Completely true...I hope Americans wake up before it is too late.
Yes, I have. And nobody is suggesting that you could have a manufacturing plant without any workers.
What a steamin pile of...how can expect American workers to compete with third world wages....? Can you afford to work for two bucks and hour, have no health insurance and no retirement? Even if you are willing to work for two buck per hour, your government won't allow it...we have laws to protect workers here. Perhaps, they should be abolished as well. Japan protects its auto industry and Koreans subsidizes Kia and people work for extremely low wages. You are asking for the moon...Ameicans workers can not compete with low cost workers from socialist countries-unions have nothing to do with this. You know I guess GM(along with steel, garment, It etc) will get 'what they deserve' and I guess people like you living in a post manufacturing US will get what you deserve also..GM workers will lose their jobs, but so will many other workers who depend upon the success of GM. It's a domino effect and all Americans will eventually be knocked out. I guess we better visit third world countries so we can figure out exactly what we 'deserve'.
Yeah, that's because the union shops are going out of business. The US auto industry and the non-Southwest airlines are next line.
As another poster correctly pointed out, we definitely need to do something about unionized government employees. I'd start with the teachers.
If Japanese taxpayers subsidize American car buyers with efficient, reliable cars I don't consider it a bad thing. I'm not a Japanese taxpayer.
They don't have the cost associated with running an American business. I suppose auto workers should work for minimum wage and have no health benefits....right?
American autoworkers should work for market rates. $50,000 + benefits for showing up late to drive 5 screws, and even then not being able to keep up with the line, is too much. What's worse is these people are almost impossible to fire. When the union contract stipulates that it takes three people to change a lightbulb (and that's an anecdote, not a joke), you can't blame fleeced Japanese taxpayers for your problem. My friend has found Honda to be a much better work environment, tell you husband not to be afraid to look around for better work.
Because they aren't union.
I support the destruction of the UAW, my children will be fine.
I brought my F-250 Super Duty in for a scheduled check-up. No Problemos, everything works fine. I am buying bigger tires for it this summer. I want to jack it up 2" also. There are still idiots in little cars that can't see something 4 feet higher than they are. They are supposed to bow down to me:):)
How would you expect a Chinese making $2.00 per hour or as you state "work for a bowl of rice or in China's case slave/prisoner labor" to be able to buy a car made in the USA by someone being paid $60.00 per hour?
The same holds true with our domestic market. All these millions of Mexicans working for discount wages can only afford used cars from the *Buy Here - Pay Here* car lots on payments with 21% interest.
Our big box stores need cheap Chinese goods that the Mexicans can afford. Of course a lot of middle class Americans get all giddy about the low prices and praise free market economies, capitalism, Gaya and The Man on the Moon for their good fortunes that they can by so much more now. What they fail to realize is they are buying crap and usually has very short utility span.
My father and one of my uncles worked for major steel companies in the US from the early nineteen hundreds to the mid fifties. They saw the need for reform in the labor practices and the role unions had in helping the workers. Later they saw the decline and fall of the steel industry in this country because of the excesses of the labor unions and the politicians anxious to get union votes. Our steel industry went overseas fifty years ago. People lost jobs and companies went out of business. GM and to some extent the other auto manufacturers are just a continuation of the same problem.
The first two models available will be the Hammer and Sickle Sedan, and the Chairman Mao Sport Coupe.
The Constitution Party is the only party which is completely pro-life, against special rights for homosexuals, pro-American sovereignty, anti-globalist, anti-free trade, anti-deindustrialization, anti-unchecked immigration, pro-gun, and against the constantly increasing expansion of unlawful police laws, in favor of a strong national defense and opposed to unconstitutional interventionism.
Worth looking at. Forget the Libertarians.
Pep Boys is carrying a line of inexpensive Chinese dirt bikes, atv\s and scooters.
Just from looking at them, I'd say they are junk. Wheels are too small, poor fit of plastic, etc. The forks on the 250 dirtbike look like they'd fold in half if you landed hard enough.
They are about half the price of the Japanese stuff, but I'd buy a 5 year old Japanese make before I'd buy one of the new Chinese models.
If their cars are going to look that shoddy, they won't sell many over here.
I have watched the Union make concessions. You can not make enough concessions to counter third world wages and envionmental policies. globalization will cause socialism. Well off American workers have already rejected socialism. When jobs don't pay living wages or provide health care etc, socialism will prevail. Globalization= the enslavement of the US worker.
One problem with your argument is that the competition is subsidized by their governments. You live in lala land. The real world is a bit different. Pay a visit to Buffalo and see if the former steel workers (or their kids those few who remain) are better off. This area remains depressed thirty years later. You will reap what you sow...the unfair policies that you defend will hurt you or your kids at some point in the future.
This is quite true...I can not understand why anyone supports globalization given the protectionism that foreign competitors enjoy via their government policies and the beating our businesses get at the hand of our government-excessive regulation and failure to make foreign competitors live up to their worthless agreements which American businesses must adhere to.
You drive one of these now, but in an hour, you've gotta drive one all over again.
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