Whirlpool Unveils Plans to Slash Workforce by 10% (another company closing an American plant)

Fox News ^ | 10/28/2011 | Reuters

[tobyhill]

Whirlpool Corp , the world's largest appliance maker, slashed its full-year profit forecast and said it would cut about 10 percent of its workforce in North America and Europe, to protect margins in a weak economic environment.

The maker of Maytag and KitchenAid appliances will cut more than 5,000 positions and said it would close down its plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and reduce its overall manufacturing capacity by about 6 million units.

[padre35]

Spoken by the King of Dodgeball?

[padre35]

How about engaging in that so hard to find, for you, intellectual honesty and answering the question posed?

[1rudeboy]

Go cry to your mother. And reread #113.

[padre35]

Reduced to referencing my mother?

Sad really, I forgive you.

[N. Theknow]

Destroying US industry is not “getting mean and lean”.

Destroying US industry is getting beat.

Destroying US industry is Obama.

Destroying US industry is the Democrat Party.

Destroying US industry is the EPA.

Destroying US industry is taxes.

Destroying US industry is regulations.

[agere_contra]

What are you saying in your post about buying a Jaguar?

Well, I guess it’s nice that you are free to buy a British car. Enjoy that freedom.

We certainly enjoy that freedom in reverse. The most popular car in Britain is the Ford Focus. We buy them because they are good cars, fit for service.

Ford gets its share of the UK market by competing (!) - not by getting Uncle Sugar to use the levers of subsidy and tariff. We in the UK get good cars and Ford get paid.

I’m not seeing why some people on FR have a problem with this apparently revolutionary idea. Nobody owes you a living: you get ahead by being better, faster or cheaper than the competition.

All of this reflexive recourse to tariffs sounds like the first instinct of a loser culture. Don’t be that country!

[padre35]

Ford has plants in the UK iirc?

Is that were those popular Focus’s are built?

[agere_contra]

They are almost certainly assembled here: finished cars make a poor export item (because you are shipping a great deal of fresh air). And also there’s the whole right-hand steering wheel issue.

I don’t believe we have tariffs to protect one set of shareholders over another (e.g. Jaguar over Ford) - though of course I may have missed some recent dumbass directive from Brussels. And of course we have our share of Global Warming R-Tards who want us to drive electric shoeboxes.

But in general car manufacturer capital seems to be treated well in the UK. For instance I believe Tata are investing bigtime.

Actual car-drivers are treated like garbage (our fuel tax is, what, three times yours?) but car plants seem to be doing well here.

[padre35]

As a business model, Ford found it more profitable to build in the UK, which is one of the thrusts of my line of thinking.

A tariff would merely make it more profitable to assemble cars in the UK rather then have them imported.

[woodbutcher1963]

I know this is too late, but NEVER buy a fridge with an icemaker through the door. According to a friend of mine who ownes an appliance sales/service company(your local type appliance store) almost all problems , including FIRES, result from the icemaker.
The only icemaker you want is the kind that you need to open the door to get ice. ALL the ice/water through the door are problematic.

Also, the front load washing machines have mold and mildew problems from the fact that when the spin cycle ends there is always a small amount of water left in the bottom of the tub. My buddy convinced me to buy a Fisher-Paykel top loading washing machine last time. It has a direct drive motor under the tub(no belts). It spins the clothes at 10,000 rpms. When the clothes go in the dryer they are damp.
This results in less dryer time(less $). It also uses about half the water of the old machines. They are made in New Zealand.

The other thing he convinced me to buy was the KichtenAid dishwasher. I wanted to by a Bosch. He told me they are a pain in the neck to work on. They need to be pulled out and flipped over to perform any maintainence. The KitchenAid/Whirpools you just take off the panal on the fron bottom and eveything is right there.

[annieokie]

"""I know this is too late, but NEVER buy a fridge with an icemaker through the door. """

After two of these kind, NO MORE, as you say they are trouble. This new one has the icemaker inside the freezer compartment, like I said it is a Plain Jane, no frills and cheaper.

I have a Bosch dishwasher, have had it for about 8 yrs now, no problems. I bought it because it had the stainless steel interior, I was tired of the other kind rusting. Also, there is no heater, the hot water and the stainless steel does the drying job and it gets very hot.

When I and if I ever have to purchase a Washer/Dryer, it will be the Fisher-Paykel. I was told it had very few moving parts to go wrong.

RE: Maytag, I purchased their free standing stove, with the two ovens, small one on top, large one on the bottom, they finally did away with that old pan/lid drawer and made something useful. I love this unit.

[1rudeboy]

Don't be sad. Just understand that not everyone you meet on the internet falls for the games you play. You want me to answer: "Is the goal of your economic view to see income prosperity throughout the income scales (ie wage growth) or is maximization of corporate value?" (Known in circles other than your own as a "false choice").

So here it is: yes, of course.

[padre35]

Sad at the level of discourse.

One may say “false choice” then again one is also ignoring the fact that has not happened under your paradigm, quite the opposite has occured.

The effect of that is place a pseudo marxist into political power and that trend will more then likely continue, in effect the reality of the policies one advocates will see that trend continue.

[1rudeboy]

Well, I did learn from you that all S. Korean companies should be regarded as being incorporated in Ireland . . . that was your initial addition to the level of discourse.

And you shouldn't be bothered at all if anyone notices that you think wage growth and growth in corporate value is an "either/or" proposition. That is an attitude more suited to the Occupy Wall Street Crowd.

Finally, "my paradigm" did not compel the government to force banks to make loans to people who couldn't afford them, though I'll grant you that "my paradigm" allows for investment banks to repackage those loans. Our economy is in a mess right now because people think they can get something from the government for nothing, and that description includes many of the protectionists on this thread.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Also think Obamacare is simply murdering job creation, no wise businessmen or woman would dare to seriously expand to be stuck with massively expensive employees.

They will go with automation instead...

Well, maybe in the foreign plant where they have already moved their manufacturing.

My business would simply come to an end without foreign imports, because our products are no longer manufactured in the the USA in any significant quantities. Therefore a higher tariff on, say Chinese goods would simply lead me and many other American small business owners to shut down. Manufacturers would take years to move production back on shore even if their costs suddenly went way up and the USA looked attractive again.

We made this mess over a long period of time, and it's going to take a long period of time to work our way back out of it. A trend toward less taxation and regulation in all forms would be better than trying to punish people and countries we are mad at in the short run.

[algernonpj]

The following article is based on one of several studies about corporates taxes in the US and tax havens:

"The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005"

[algernonpj]

... Your industries are in an increasingly untenable position because your domestic socialists have made America a bad place for them to make money. ...

It's more complex than your post indicates. Free enterprise and capitalism have been replaced by crony capitalism / corporatism / fascism.

The enemy within has been very successful in creating a story for the ‘left’ about economic, social, and environmental ‘justice’ and a story for the ‘right’ about ‘free trade’, 'comparative advantage', and 'profits uber alles' with no reference to patriotism or morality. Both stories lead to the same place - destruction of the American economy, security, national sovereignty, traditional culture, values and its pesky middle class under the tyranny of global communism.

"Free Trade ™" as currently used, refers to agreements, designed by globalists and enforced by unelected bureaucrats at the WTO. These agreements place American workers and companies (burdened by onerous regulation and taxation) in an untenable competition with global corporations and workers who aren't even bound by minimal standards regarding working conditions, safety, or environment.

National borders are viewed only as an impediment to the free movement of goods and natural persons. "Free Trade ™" agreements over ride US immigration law. This is part of the reason we are importing 125,000 new legal workers (guest workers who often pay no or partial taxes and green cards) and are infested by ~40 million illegal aliens.

Corporations benefit from cheap labor while passing part of the cost of their employees onto the US taxpayer. Illegal aliens cost $1/4 - $ 1/3 trillion per year and 4.5 million low salaried immigrant households are subsidized by ~$20,000 per year.

"Free Trade ™" seems to work one way in the real world of international trade. Many nations have de facto tariffs in the form of VAT traxes, fees, and delays in their customs facilities.

Under "Free Trade ™" There is no level playing field; even if the onerous tax and regulatory burden were removed, an American business hiring American workers cannot compete with corporations using workers in a country where you can hire 20 workers for the price of one American nor with companies using illegals or guest workers whose salaries are so low that the cost of hiring them is subsidized by the US tax payer. That is unless you are willing to give up our standard of living and devolve into third world living standards.

[padre35]

Or,

They could just produce their products in the US?

[padre35]

As post #136 details, few corporations, domestic or foreign, paid taxes to begin with, I linked the article, per your request, on why coporations with potential tax liabilities use Ireland to avoid taxation.

And yes, your paradigm has led to declining wage growth and the bundles of loans (possible due to deregulation) were AAA rated (by ratings agencies who had no oversight) and then sold globally, on markets that did not exist prior to Globalisms emergence.

The very same globalism that one advocates for time after time, which is fine, but then one should also be willing to acknowledge it’s flaws.

[1rudeboy]

Absolutely brilliant! Some corporations (Irish or otherwise) legitimately (or otherwise) pay no taxes to the U.S. Treasury. The only solution is to increase taxes on ourselves by imposing a flat tariff! Our problem is solved!
/protectionist moron