"Our" Economy

[Mr. Wyndham]

Forced into nothing. rlg3 has a point...the company signed those contracts, so they were okay with it as far as anybody who didn't go to those meetings is concerned...if not, they would have put up a bigger fight like they're capable of. (see: Oshawa truck plant issue, they didn't get 'forced' into anything there...)

[MrIcky]

I agree with the OP. I bought foreign cars back when the US didn't really make competitive products. Now that the US has competitive products, there is no reason to buy anything else. i.e. A Malibu and a Camry are roughly equal- why would you buy anything but the Malibu as an American. Especially for the 'cars=appliance' market sectors.

However I think YOU as a person should do this as a conscious decision. I don't believe tariffs are the answer.

[rlg3]

Originally Posted by rayhawk

It is the unions fault. American companies survive despite the unions (and there are fewer every year). The automakers were forced into those bad deals, by not being able to hire people that would be willing to work for much less compensation. Do other companies hire the most expensive workers? How could you compete if you have to pay twice what your competitor pays? And what if the government restricted your company from hiring anyone you want, and said you can only hire people from one select group, which happens to demand higher pay regardless of performance?

Again, the companies didn't have to sign the contracts if they felt they were a bad deal.

Henry Ford said "I pay my people more so they can afford to buy my cars."

You should thank unions, unions brought you the forty hour work week, overtime, weekends, holidays, safety, just to name a few. they are not with out there issues such as merit-based, but end at the day they have helped America. Many companies don't have unions because they have learned to adopt or even take their level of compensation and benefits higher than what unions ask for, and their are very successful.
America will never be able to compete on a dollar for dollar scale with cheap, unskilled labor, that work in unsafe conditions with unsafe products (lead paint, etc, etc) , that is if a company has a union or not that is a a whole different discussion on TRADE.

[DarrenJ]

Originally Posted by SdustinK

it's so easy the reason people don't buy American cars is they don't believe there's reliable. That's why u see 6 series and sl mercedes and not z06 all over or zr1

Don't you folks think that "Consumer Reports" has a lot to do with the big 3's problems?

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by DarrenJ

Don't you folks think that "Consumer Reports" has a lot to do with the big 3's problems?

don't get me started on CR. I don't think anyone who buys that will every buy 2 domestic products in a row.