America’s Dirty War Against Manufacturing (Part 1): Carl Pope

[jacko]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/america-s-dirty-war-against-manufacturing-part-1-carl-pope.html

"Bob Lutz, the former head of GM, says it was neither uncompetitive wages nor unions that drove the Big Three into decline. It was a management with its eye focused on the bottom line and the short term. That, he says, is the “creeping malignancy that transformed the once powerful, world-dominating, American economy from one that produced and exported to one that trades and imports.”

[GoingDown]

I would say that uncompetitive wages, unions, and the E.P.A., and various other regulations and red tape also have a lot to do with it.

[shark66]

I would say that uncompetitive wages, unions, and the E.P.A., and various other regulations and red tape also have a lot to do with it.

VW is unionized (in Germany) and offers *very* lucrative compensation packages.

Now, if you do actual research on the relationship between union and management there as opposed to here, you might come to some interesting conclusions...I know I have...

Over there, the general idea is that *all* of the employees are in the business of keeping the company afloat and ahead of its competitors, basically watching each others back until they're in the room by themselves to negotiate a contract...and that process is quite different as well.

Most management employees here would bark at the very idea of having union reps sitting at the same crucial decision-making-meetings with the Board of Directors. For VW, that's the norm.

Most union employees here would tar and feather their reps if they came back with a one-year-contract in which many clauses were tied to the performance and financial well-being of the company as a whole. For VW, that's another norm.

Remember that unions originated from the guilds, which were a very progressive and necessary thing at their time. The idea of achieving perfection in one's craft, and teaching it to others at a later point in the game is a noble - as well as productive - one. There is absolutely nothing wrong - at least in my book - in being a master craftsman and charging a substantial hourly fee for one's labor.

Take a good look and a ride in a 10-year old Jetta. Then find a "Wolfsburg Edition" one of the same age and compare notes. You'll understand what I'm talking about.

As for the EPA and regulations...initially, a lot of that garbage was put in place with the idea of protecting the U.S. auto industry from the foreign competition. The foreigners either dropped the idea of selling anything on this market altogether, or adjusted better and faster than Detroit itself...the other side of the coin was the fact that as long as American cars were different than European/Japanese ones, they fared pretty well altogether...sure, they were monstrous gas-guzzlers with graveyard-size trunks, but they were reasonably well-built for the most part. Once Detroit was pushed (by the government) to start competing with foreign concepts, we got the Pintos and other debacles that are still the butt of numerous jokes thirty years later...

While I'm a foreigner, I do believe in American exceptionalism as a valid concept. However, one can't base such a concept on a deadly combination of ignorance, arrogance and greed, which has been the norm for the past couple of decades...

What German manufacturers (as well as Japanese albeit in a different manner) can teach us is that *work ethic still counts* but that the concept must to be understood and obeyed by everyone involved, from the doorman to CEO/CIO/CFO...

My $0.02 only...

Good luck to us all.

[banca rotta]

Squanderville v Thriftville

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGo_NL-eclw&feature=related

This cartoon from Warren Buffett describes the result of our trade imbalance. (Guess which one is the USA)