Government Bailout Or Good Business Practice.

[Thom]

.........Sorry I brought it up... I should have known better.

[joeD]

Thom - It's a global economy, like it or not. The idea of ascribing moral values to commerce (producing American cars as "patriotic")is incorrect. It is not a zero-sum game where every job "that is sent overseas" necessitates a corrosponding job loss here in the States. It doesn't work like that. Plus, and there is simply no getting around this: look at your fishing shirt, your jeans, your fishing shorts, your tackle box, lures, rods, reels, lines, your Gore-Tex outerwear, in other words, YOUR BASIC FISHING LIFE. Most of it is not manufactured here, but MILLIONS of people like us purchase them anyway, without a second thought, and are SATISFIED. There is no "patriotic" hue and cry about fishing equipment being manufactured outside the States. Why? Because it's not the auto industry. In an open marketplace, in a free economy, in a democratic society, one should expect an individual to choose goods and services as he or she sees fit, without repurcussion, as long as it's a Ford (or Chevy,or GM. etc.) vehicle. Keeping America Safe. Keeping America employed. Doing the right thing.

[FishinCricket]

I admire your tenacity, Thom.. I fear your post will only anger those who will not be convinced otherwise.. Good luck, buddy...

[snagged in outlet 3]

As someone who lost a good-paying union job due to outsourcing I'm torn about this subject. I am buying a new Mercury but it is made Mexico. Several GM products have chinese engines and parts. Trucks are either made in Canada or Mexicao.

I wanted to buy a GM crossover (Equinox), but with 3 recalls already it just doesn't make financial sense. Dodge gets such poor reliability ratings that it's out of the question for me.

I don't think the corporate heads of these companies give a hoot about the regular guy, so why should I care about them? It seems they like to use the patriotic line to get and keep business, but their actions don't agree with what they say.

I care about the regular guy, but what if he's building Honda's here in the States? I buy from one of the Big 3, and my vehicle was built in Mexico.

At this point, having an "American" nameplate means enough to me to avoid an import company. Although I may regret it.

Funny how Honda can build extremely high quality vehicles with American workers but the Big 3 can't. It's not the guy on the line, it's the engineers and designers. Nothing can overcome poor design, not even the best worker.

I have many friends at Wentzville Thom.

Snagged.

[Coldspring]

Most of my backpacking gear is made by small cottage companies right here in the U.S.A. I'm sure some of the fabrics and materials are imported, but it is assembled here and sold directly by the company owner, that often assembles it themselves or has one or two employees to help out. This is about the extent of my patriotic consumerismm and it does make me feel good about myself to help someone make a living the old-fashioned way. I even communicate with the company president and assembler, sometimes they even take my input for new products or innovations.

I don't have to worry about any of my money going to greedy executives, stockholders, hedgefunds, investment banks, pension funds, politicians, etc... Okay, they're actually only making a few dollars from me, it's not a big deal, but it's a nice philosophy, and I realize that this simple merchandise isn't advanced engineered electronics or industrial machinery. Last I checked, U.S.A. couldn't even make a good television or VCR before they quit producing.

As far as autos go, I prefer Japananese vehicle. The ones that are actually manufactured in Japan. If you take a model that came from different plants (Japan vs. U.S.A.) the metals, the plastics, the fabrics, the fit and finish of the Japanese product are almost always superior to their American counterpart, even if the cars are the same color.

[ness]

Hope we can keep this civil...

Here's a no-nonsense site to keep track of what's been promised, spent and paid back.

[eric1978]

I support unions even though I'm not in one.

I always buy American if the product is comparable in price and quality to a foreign one.

I think our economy's greatest problem is that we manufacture almost nothing here anymore because big corporations export the labor to places where they can exploit the desperate situation those people are in. Until we open the factories back up and start making things again, paying workers livable wages and begin rebuilding the middle class (like we did in the 40s and 50s), our country will continue to slide into inferiority.

The top 5% richest Americans own 95% of the wealth.

Greed is killing our country.

[fozzie.]

Hand in hand with the loss of manufacturing jobs, to me at least, is the shift in technology development. As an example, a few issues ago Nat'l Geographic had a big article on renewable energy development. Many European nations- Spain and Germany, for example, were developing solar and other renewable technologies, then starting companies and moving them to the US, to exploit renewable resources such as the Sonoran desert. IMO it has to be in part cultural- people are more enthralled to build the next Snuggie or ShamWOW than to develop a more efficient photovoltaic cell.

It's not just manufacturing jobs which are being shipped overseas, but the the knowledge, training, and skill to develop the ideas, technologies and manufacturing processes which will be important in the future. In my opinion, at least.

[Justin Spencer]

It seems to me our society is primarily reactive and not proactive. Those of us who are business owners realize that to continue to improve and grow you must be proactive and figure out what you need to do to be successful in the future, not just in the present. That's seems to be a foreign thought to our government officials who seem to be more worried about re-election than what is good for the country. I think if we made our officials work harder and get paid less maybe we would get the type of people who would get some work done in Washington. There are a select few who seem to be doing things that they feel are right without playing completely to the politics, and agree or not I respect that much more than those who always seem to play the middle and never ruffle any feathers. Our country and economy are very young compared to the Old World countries, we need to realize that we are not entitled to anything, and if we don't figure out a solution to many of our problems we may have to sell ourselves back to England (or not!)

[patfish]

and if we don't figure out a solution to many of our problems we may have to sell ourselves back to England (or not!)

"There is no hell. There is only France."

-- Frank Zappa, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore