Quote:
Originally Posted by alfie43
I recently posted in a couple of threads that turned into discussions about our domestic cars (GM, Ford, Chrysler) vs foreign cars.
In one thread, the OP posted that he bought a Hyundai Genesis. He also stated that was struggling in the job market. I chided him about the irony of buying a car that is 100% Korean assembled with a 95% foreign made content. I said perhaps his employment picture, and for many other Americans, would be much improved if people like him bought less foreign cars. Of course, I got toasted for that. I was on vacation and couldn't access a computer to fully complete my position.
Before some of you jump in to remind me that the Camaro is made in Canada, read this entire post. Also, I'm not talking about patriotism. I'm not talking about restricting our free market choices. I am not anti-Asian; my father immigrated to this country from the Far-East. The quality gap is history, so that it is no longer part of the discussion. Again, my point is: It's about US JOBS.
As for our Canadian built Camaros; There is more to this story than where a car is assembled. It's about the US jobs that are created and maintained to produced a car regardless of where the final assembly takes place. It's about employment in the parts and components industry; the research, design, engineering, manufacturing and assembly of vehicle content.
GM, Ford and Chrysler employ far more Americans per car than the foreign companies, including the foreign implants that are assembled here. The numbers aren't even close. Here are some figures from the Levelfield Institute. They express their findings as number of jobs created per every 2500 cars produced.
"The JPC Rating (jobs per car) is calculated by dividing the total number of cars sold by an automaker in the U.S. by the company's U.S. workforce. It measures an automaker's contribution to job creation in all areas—research, design, engineering and management—not just assembly jobs. From a simple mathematical perspective, the rating tells you how many U.S. workers a company employs for every 2,500 cars they sell.
For example, Ford employs 89 Americans for every 2,500 cars sold, followed by GM and Chrysler at 78 and 92 respectively. Honda ranks first among the major foreign automakers, but only with a score of 54 followed by Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai/Kia at 51, 38, and 26 respectively.
Why do we count jobs per 2,500 cards sold, rather than for each car sold? Doing so produces whole numbers, which are easier to compare. For example, each Hyundai car supports .01 jobs, while every 2500 cars support 26.
Because Ford, GM and Chrysler conduct far more of their research, design, engineering, manufacturing and assembly work in the U.S. than foreign automakers do, buying a Ford, GM, or Chrysler supports almost three times as many jobs as buying the average foreign automobile. Some comparisons are even more striking. Buying a Ford supports 3.5 times more jobs than buying a Hyundai."
Alfie
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This is the kind of siloed nationalism that should have went the way of the dinosaur.
If everyone in the US bought US based cars things would not be any better in terms of the economy. The lagging economy is a much more complex subject which, if you care to open that can of worms we can, cannot be solved uni-directionally.
The money made from selling a foreign car goes to the dealership, correct? That money largely stays within the US borders. The profit from Nissan, as an example, selling the car to the dealership goes back to Japan. Japan in turn employs people both in Japan and in the US. Those in Japan purchase some goods from the US (largely manufactured items and food) which brings some money back to America.
The balance of imports vs. exports is called the trade balance. The US is at a deficit with most countries (Japan) but is at a surplus with others (very few) because our economy has moved from a majority manufacturing base to a majority service based. Services rendered are not captured in the trade deficit. This isn't a problem. The world thrives on services as much as it does manufacturing.
The reason the manufacturing jobs have left this country is due to a competitive advantage held by other countries. The people outside the US (largely first world countries in general) are willing to do the same manufacturing job that people used to do here... for less. So, economically, they have a competitive advantage that America can't match because of what people are willing to work for here. Concurrently, service jobs tend to be viewed as more sophisticated and more noble where as manufacturing is considered working class and kind of "last century". People try to move out of the plant and into a desk.
Given the movement of jobs abroad to countries with competitive advantages, those people that remain here with the manufacturing skill set are either going to have to take lower wages to get a job or learn a new skill set. It is a paradigm shift in the economy.
Now, why get so hot and bothered about where our stuff is made? Why shouldn't it be made in China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, where ever? As a people we cannot afford to be so nationalistic and try to do everything ourselves, it doesn't make sense. The reason it doesn't is because some countries will be better at some things than others.
Say Japan built the worlds best computers and they were affordable/reasonably priced. They lasted for several years and there were little mechanical difficulties. Should the US make them too just so we can provide for ourselves? No, we can't make them as well as Japan did. So why bother making an inferior product when a perfectly good one is already made? We can spend our time focused on something we do better than Japan. Now we have something to trade for. We get their computers and they get our... say... marketing expertise or finance expertise.
The global economy is emerging and we depend on everyone and they depend on us. To try to turn the clock back 150 years just so we could be "independent" is an ignorant way to think.
Where does most of the US debt come from? Foreigners. Where did the foreigners earn a great deal of their money? Selling shit to Americans.