Pop-Pop

I hope no one puts out a contract on me but I've gotta say it. I've spent my life working at all levels of industry and feel comfortable saying this.

There have always been people in any organization who know how to make things better, faster & cheaper. Our non-competitiveness begins with some leaders who couldn't lead water downstream but end up mucking it up for the rest of management. We have some of the best engineers in the world but they are often led by psuedo engineer managers who should be working in accounting jobs. I believe we have some of the finest craftsmen in the world but they carry a lot of dead-beat workers. Instead of representing the interests of our best workers, unions often protect the least productive cry-babies in a factory. Attempts to truly modernize our plants are resisted by many unions and incompetent management. It ticks me off that we have allowed this to go to the extent that someone a half a world away can make stuff and pay for all the shipping & handling while under-cutting our prices.

In my opinion, the best way to begin to change things around is to insist on cutting out the dredges in management, engineering, work force and unions. We can compete but not with all this useless baggage!

Fronty Owner

25 years ago, it was do your job better, faster, cheaper, there is a japanese worker waiting on your job.
Same thing today, just china.

We feel everyone deserves to be middle class. We feel that everyone deserves to have more than their neighbor. We feel that we deserve to have what ever we want for nothing. We feel that if something breaks, its the manufactures fault and we should get a new one. We feel that if something causes us harm regardless of the circumstances, we deserve compensation from the manufacturer. We feel we should be treated as number one regardless of performance. We feel everyone should get an equal trophey.

IA_James

Um, not really. Most of the guys I know just don't want the standard being used for their wage and benefits to be the $1 an hour, hope you don't die, benefit package that is standard in these so-called "developing countries" where all the decent jobs in this country have gone in the name of increasing corporate profit. Seriously, was GM, Ford, Chrysler, every single electronics maker in the country, the appliance makers, the clothes makers, the toy makers, NOT making money? Of course they were. The just wanted more. And "more" is only bad if you have a union card. In a CEO it's to be commended.

Edit: One more thing while I'm thinking about it. Has nobody made the connection between the steady decline in real earnings of the middle class and the budget and Social Security shortfall yet? I'm not an economist, and I don't play one on TV, but if your tax base is steadily shrinking, of course the take will decrease. Hence the trouble with available money, and the Social Security solvency difficulties.

ratat98

I agree with grantx5...im American all the way, i mean if someone says something bad about the US, in front of me, i will take the time out of my day to make them feel bad, but then here I am talking on a Toshiba laptop, and trying to run a photography business that uses equipment made mostly in asia...so i guess we need to realize what we are doing by not buying products made in the US

Mexstan

I have been waiting for someone to comment on what "Made in the USA" means today. Is there such a thing as 100% made in the USA any more? Take a look at any truck or car supposedly "Made in the USA" and see what percentage of that vehicle comes from places other than America. What about computers? Open any computer up and tell me what percentage of the guts is made in the USA. Choose any product and let us know if you can find anything that is 100% made in the USA. There are not too many left. Don't forget to include the raw material (ie steel) that the product is made from. "Assembled in the USA" is about as close as you can get to the truth. The sad fact is that today almost all finished products are global. Why do you think this has occured? Perhaps this leads back to the original story that started this discussion.

Fronty Owner

Considering very little steel and other metals are made in the US, the only thing that is 100% made in the US is some of out electricity and alot of hot air.

crobtex

Check the facts. The problem with SS is not where the money comes from...it's where it's going. I recently signed up for SS, and was both surprised and angered at the majority of the people at the SS office. It was so bad, I applied over the internet instead of having to be around the riff-raff and freeloaders at two different offices. Of all the people there, 80 to 100, between both offices, there was less the 5 people of retirement age and probably less then 5% white Americans. Don't get bent outta shape, just telling you what I saw.
When I got home, I went to the SS website and started looking at the stats and charts and almost fell out. Go there, spend a little time, and see for yourself. Again, the problem is the people MOST of the money is going to.
Now the REALLY bad part. I have sent emails to my local politicians and the SS Admin about my concerns....and the ONLY answer was a form letter email from the SS Admin.
I'm not through venting my concerns, but I think I see a big brick wall just ahead.

rammtuff

think I covered that with my furniture issue. The items are made in PA, out of USA hardwoods. Finished locally. For example the wardrobe that my wife chose cost us about 100.00 more than any comparable (price wise not quality wise) China made garbage. We just had to find a store that actually sold quality furniture. Certainly was none of the "chains" with the flashy ads in the paper. So yes it can be done. Our mattress and box spring that we just purchased was also made in Florida by a local company. It was actually cheaper than the chain mattress stores. This company has a stellar reputation. Family owned and operated.
Recently watching TV I watched a show about a successful clothing manufacturer that does NONE of his sewing offshore, all done in CA. He stated that he paid his employees 12 to 14 an hour. If you take the million dollar bonuses away from the CEO's, don't make projections about your stock (and then perform Enron accounting to make it exist on paper) we might be able to turn it around. Why do automotive service managers here make 6 figure salaries while the techs make 16 to 18 an hour?
Why do we continue to trade with a country/area that has no environmental controls in place, is the breeding ground of Avian flu, SARS, over-fishes, still kills whales, sharks, etc? We have sanctions against Cuba but trade with these barbaric people?

IA_James

But even accounting for the freeloaders, imports, and such, if wages for the majority of Americans had kept up with inflation, we wouldn't be in this boat. There have always been freeloaders, but since the amount being paid in has steadily gone down when figured for inflation, the money to pay out isn't there. Not mad at you at all, mad about where my tax dollars go, and the fact that the burden is being increasingly shifted to fewer and fewer people because it's tougher and tougher to find a "real" job, you bet.

RustyJC

Ummmm.....my Acura 3.2TL-S was built in Marysville, Ohio using an engine built in Ada, Ohio. My nice American Dodge Ram 3500 was built in Mexico.

Rusty

Pop-Pop

When a highly mechanized factory makes products, labor costs become a non-issue. The remaining workforce will be highly skilled and flexible (and well paid). Our entrenched organizational structure, out-dated business-school mentality and, old fashioned union/worker attitudes keeps us doing the same old things in the same old way. As long as products are made by hand, low-paid Asians with their exceptional hand skills will whip us every time! As long as industry is regarded as an employment agency with rights for the non-producer, we'll continue to lose American jobs. A problem that is created, with improved competitiveness, is what to do with all the leftover people who lack the ability or will to perform?

kelley15

I think I may have killed them. Trade in GM vehicles to buy my 03 ram and my wifes 04 Caravan.....SORRY

crobtex

I had a looong answer, but deleted it.

I just encourage everyone to go to the SS web site and spend a couple of hours looking at the charts like I did. The problem is not with where and how much money is coming into SS, it's where it's going. There is no way all of us Baby Boomers could have paid in enough money to support all of the non-retirement age, non-working, non-citizens now drawing SS.

ade's ram

This is not just an American problem we suffer the same as you do, The UK does not have one major(British) car manufacturer, the last one being Rover, which went to the wall earlier this year, and asset stripped by a Chinese car company. GM owns Vauxhall, Ford owns Jaguar, Aston Martin, VW owns Rolls Royce, BMW owns Bentley get my drift.

At least you still have some sort of automotive industry. We have almost no heavy industry, no ship building no coal mining.

We seem to be an island of shops and service industries, and now we have to compete with a number of former eastern block countries with very cheap labour, which have come into the EU. you only have to look at Germany andFrance to see the state they are in.
The big multi nationals just move their plants to where ever the cost of manufacture is lowest, can't say i blame them but it does not help the rest of us.

dezeldog

I really don't think that SS is broke but it could use some fine tuning. We need to eliminate the payment to foreign nationals that haven't paid a dime into the system. That would be a step in the right direction and then incorporate the senators and congresspeople in the system and you watch how fast it would get fixed. Next, what are we just sitting here -----ing about the system- why don't all of us do something about it. Write your congress man and senators and let them know how MIDDLE CLASS AMERICA really feels, maybe then they will pay attention to our voice. Just my $.02 worth. Whadaya think??

Jim