Dost mine ears deceive me????
"Toyota knows how to run a business for sure. Just remember that every day, their growth is another nail in the union coffin." "Oh, and buy American!"
I believe I hear the yammerings of a full-fledged union supporter!
~Subject: REL Stop the Wal-Mart Supercenter ~ Author: Rick Kuchynka ~ Posted: 2/26/2004 6:05:41 PM~
What labor unions fail to realize is that there is a finite market value to a certain amount of labor. There are definite productivity gains enjoyed when you create a workforce that is content. I have no problem admitting to labor's historic contribution to our well-being. Holidays, paid time off, health benefits, and many of the other workplace amenities we enjoy were all brought to us by labor unions. Unfortunately, the unions did not change with the times, and the number of union members in the US is roughly 1/3rd of what it once was. Unions today have no concept of the fact that performing a certain task is only worth a certain amount of money.
You can never maintain a system that inflates the wages of employees past a simple formula:
(Minimum $ amount an adequately trained worker would accept to do the job) + (Productivity gained due to a happy employee)
Labor unions have fooled themselves into thinking that if they can force their store to pay bagboys $20/hr, that they are helping bagboys everywhere.
Give me a $20/hr bagboy and a year, and I'll show you an unemployed person with now-unmarketable skills, and a new "bag your own groceries" procedure at your local supermarket."
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So, let me get this straight. Instead of buying my Toyota Sienna, which is consistently ranked in the top two minivans in just about every rating system I have come across, I should have sacrificed durability, longevity and efficiency in support of a domestic automobile industry that is clearly not working, simply because I should buy American?
Ah, but what does buy American really mean? Does my vehicle, with its parts 95% manufactured in the U.S., with its assembly completely within the boundaries of the U.S.A., with American workers, really mean less than that Chevrolet pickup down the street manufactured in Canada? These lines are becoming increasingly blurred. From 1976 through 1996, American car companies knew that they had a shortage of high-quality, reliable cars, so they bought some from Japan and Korea and either put a domestic name on it or a different body.
For example, how do we classify a BMW Z3, designed in Germany and built in South Carolina (employing a lot of Americans)? - that's probably an easy one - most would agree that it's still a German car (but can't really be considered an "import" if an American buys it since it's built here in the States, right?).
Other issues are even harder to discern: Volvo and Jaguar are owned by Ford (which also has a significant stake in Mazda), so are all these domestic or foreign brands?
The Chevy Tracker (formerly known as GEO Tracker) was built by Suzuki (which they also sold as the Sidekick). Is the Tracker as we know it today American because it wears the Chevy badge (even though it is built in Japan)? The same could be said of the Chevy Prism. It's basically a Toyota Corolla built in Japan, imported for Chevy to slap their name on. Oh, and by the way, this same car also used to be called the GEO Prism. How about the Honda Accords built in Marysville, OH by American factory workers? Interesting how some loyalties can seem irrelevant all of a sudden...
Ford Probe = Mazda MX-6
1990+ Ford Escort/Mercury Tracer = Mazda Protege
Mercury Villager = Nissan Quest
Chrysler Conquest = Mitsubishi Starion
Eagle Summit = Mitsubishi Mirage
Eagle Talon/1990+ Plymouth Laser = Mitsubishi Eclipse
Dodge Stealth = Mitsubishi 3000GT
Dodge/Plymouth Colt Vista = Mitsubishi Expo
Dodge D50/Ram 50/Plymouth Arrow = Mitsubishi Mighty Max
Dodge Raider = Mitsubishi Montero
1984-1988 Chevy Nova = Toyota Corolla FWD
Geo/Chevy Prizm = Toyota Corolla (Sprinter body)
Geo/Chevy Tracker = Suzuki Sidekick
Geo/Chevy Metro = Suzuki Swift
Geo Storm = Isuzu Impulse
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I have always thought that the more I can save on my major purchases, either through dependability, longevity, efficiency, etc., the more I have to spend at local Miles City businesses, such as eating out at the Airport Inn or the Stagecoach, or buying new appliances at Steadmans, etc., etc. That is the best support of Miles City and the U.S.A. I can imagine. Supporting an out-of-touch, bloated, archaic industry is not something I feel the need to blindly support.