Originally Posted by Doc
Well now, aren't YOU the superior one! Doing exactly what you're claiming others are doing. Grade school level? And you're qualified to judge everyone... how? It's a forum, not an executive meeting. I wouldn't want to run GM; being CEO consumes you, every second of your life's energy.
You've dramatically over-simplified "people in the US" in order to make your point which isn't actually much above grade school itself. There's a lot to being in business in this country, much of which deals with regulations and legal issues. The costs of keeping lawyers on retainer or actually on the payroll is staggering. If you're in business, especially a large corporation, you're going to get sued; guaranteed. They don't have those issues overseas, so their money doesn't go into that bucket. There's OBVIOUSLY a lot more to all this; just because we haven't mentioned it in here (yet) doesn't mean people aren't aware or understand it.
Not being rude is part of being civil, which goes a long way towards possibly solving an issue instead of inflaming it and making it worse. You are clearly of that newer generation that thinks their opinion is 'fact', and by declaring it so, that must make it true. Number 3's assessment of the situation tells you a lot about what has been going on inside GM, which is an extremely valuable insight. He was with them for a long time.
Yes, I did mention it. It's not just the cost of labor, a huge chunk of the cost of doing business for GM is the retirements they have to pay for; it's in the billions. Retirements are part of the union contracts. That's an expense that overseas labor generally doesn't have to carry. Those foreign companies that are building cars here, do have to consider those expenses, and they also have to deal with the regulations and legal expenses doing business here brings. However since their management is based on the foreign cultures they came from, their attitudes and behaviors are different. They have a different outlook on what to do and how to do it.
There's a lot more to this whole situation than can be discussed in a medium like this, but some of it deals with attitudes and behavior of the working class, but especially the attitudes and behavior of the ruling class; the management.
Doing business in America doesn't automatically mean you're at a disadvantage, but you have to be aware of the differences between American culture, both as customers and workers, compared to what you'll see in other countries; especially the labor market countries like China, Mexico and India. China and India have the advantage of economy of scale; they have more workers available than we have people. China has a population of 1.5 billion, India has reached 1 billion. Even though Mexico doesn't have a large population like those other two countries, Mexico has the advantage of location. The logistics of producing in Mexico is better than either China or India.
Then you have culture. All 3 of those countries populations and cultures don't have the same expectations that ours does. In China or India, if you don't like the working conditions, there are 100 million people outside who will gladly take your place. We don't have that issue here. In the U.S., we have the cultural mentality of being entitled and demanding; give me what I want or I'll sue. Give me what I want or I'll attack; agree with me or I'll attack. It's completely different than what you see elsewhere. Our 'poor' are not at all like the poor in other countries. Chinese poor are POOR, and 75% of that 1.5 billion population are poor. That's a massive labor pool that will pretty much do just about anything to keep from starving to death. "I'm inside out of the weather, I have a bowl of rice and I get paid? I'll take it!" We don't have that here.
There's so much more to this story than can be talked about in here, otherwise it would start looking like a novel. Just because people on a forum aren't running the companies being discussed, doesn't mean they are stupid, inexperienced and don't have valid ideas. It's like someone in a bad relationship; everyone around them can see it, but the person in it can't see it clearly. For us, GM is that relationship right now.
The problems American manufacturing have are a combination of management attitude, worker skill and attitude, and government attitude and behavior. All of that started a long time ago; it's been going on for decades. It's all about people; their expectations, perceptions, attitudes and behavior. You see it in here, you see it in politics, you see it in business, you see it in the schools, you see it in society. Bad attitudes bring bad results; good attitudes bring better results. Good attitudes combined with confidence and vision can bring great results, but in every case, good attitudes always have to deal with those with bad attitudes. It's a constant drag on progress, society, and quality of life. Even simple conversation is compromised by bad attitudes.
America as a nation can do what no nation before it ever has, did or could... as long as we're united. We can only be conquered when we're divided. We can be conquered politically, industrially, commercially, economically if we can be divided as a society and culture. It begins with attitude, which leads to behavior. Everything else is the result of those two things.
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