Quote:
Originally Posted by Number 3
First, if they create jobs FOR Americans, that's great. But Hyundai/Kia is a Korean company. It is owned and operated in Korea. But there is really only one reason why they build plants here to produce product..............$$$$$$
The first reason is that to put a car on a boat and ship it is something like $500. Since basically steel, plastic and all the parts in a car come from the same sources, the reason is can you hire Americans to work for enough less money to save the $500 or even a portion of it.
The second(ary) reason (and most Americans fall for this as indicated by the article) is to seem more American and hence win favor and sell more of the cars that you aren't putting on a boat and are making more money on than if you imported it.
And throw in the fact that American States and communities will practically give them the land, build the plant, train the workers and give tax breaks for YEARS, it is a pretty darn good deal to build a plant here. So if you have plus volume, can save on shipping and American politicians will build your plant for wayyyyy less than building at home, it's just simply a more profitable endeavor.
Also keep in mind that, at least in Japan, the cost of land is Huge. When Nissan was going through hard times several many years ago, they sold one of their old plants for God awful amount of money. Land is cheap here and labor, if you don't have the UAW legacy costs is quite reasonable.
So it's simply the economics of putting a vehicle on a boat and shipping it. If you compare the labor that goes into producing a car ($1,000 plus or minus) to that shipping cost it is real money.
That's why there aren't any Samsung or LG TV plants in the U.S. Shipping boxes of flat screens is cheap by comparison.
The minute Americans will pay the extra shipping cost is the day most of those jobs will go back overseas to protect the Japanese and Korean economies.
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Can you explain to me why GM doesn't just shop around for a "right to work" state (no forced unions) which would build them a plant, give them tax breaks, and pay for their workers too?
I'm sure the unions have constructed some sort of Rube Goldberg system to insure that GM can never do this, but I'm not sure how they did it.