To touch on a few points from above:
1. The Lincoln MKX (Or whatever its silly letters are) and Edge actually sold much better than Ford had expected, so they must have struck a chord with the public somewhere on that one, extra chrome or not.
2. A lot of these Japanese manufacturers now have a lot of plants in North America. They are also publicly owned, so you could have shares in them just like you could in Ford, Chev, Chrysler. Have you checked with your broker lately to see where your money is invested? Is he putting it into Ford, or Toyota? Have you asked? If he said "Toyota", would you tell him to put it in "Ford"? Remember, its considered "Junk" stock right now, so is your money going to go where your mouth is?
3. Non-union does not mean "communist". In fact, non-union is the ultimate capitalits system. It's how the mine operators used to oppress people in my native Cape Breton Island. They essentially endentured families in the mining towns for life. Their children, too, until the "socialist" idea of unions was able to take hold. However, as long as unions still exist in other plants, places like Toyota and Michelin will continue to have good pay, good benefits becuasee they can't afford to have people point at them and say that inequality is the result of non-union operations. However, when the last union falls, do you think these corporations will feel any compunction whatsoever to maintain high standards of pay, benefits, worked rights?
4. Companies that come here and say if we unionize, we'll close, are blowing smoke. The problem is, our governments are on their side. The proper way to deal with it should be to allow them to leave, but tarrif their products so heavily if they try to bring them into North America that they could not possibly sell a single unit. They would come crawling back, I assure you. This is what the Americas governments did achieve with the Japanese imports. If they weren't assembled here, or had significant components manufactured here, then they would be tarrifed out of existence. Our local Volvo plant was the result of this trade regulation. Sadly, NAFTA ended that as it has for so many. Mexico now gets the industries that once were a significant part of our economies. And until mexico starts importing as much from us as it exports back, we'll continue to have a problem.
5. Unions cxertainly started out as a very good thing, ending the oppression of huge corporations and their government backers. However, unions have in many ways forgotten their true purpose: Protect the oppressed and provide an opportunity for people to earn a fair wage in a fair and safe workplace. Now, instead of going after the millions of workers who are prevented "full time" status and the comensurate benefits they would entail at retailers throughout North America, they sit back and try to keep getting more and more money from the companies that are already unionized, essentially making them uncompetitive and running them into the ground.
I'm not saying all of this to proclaim fact. I'm hoping to encourage a bit of discussion and get us all to think in broader strokes than "Your commie Honda Sucks". Lets look at everything and see where we can make the biggest difference. Ie: If we not only bought Fords, but bought all of the shares we could (which would be a lot at the current prices), then attended the shareholders meetings, maybe we could make a real difference in the company we love.
Some interesting links:
Brief account of unionizing in Cape Breton:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Cape_Breton
Brief history of Unions in America:
http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Unionization.htm
Thoughts? Comments?
uke:
