Re:Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To ...
by potatolicious on Monday March 15, 2010 @03:50AM
(#1192375)
It is, but for how much longer? When I was in the auto industry it certainly looked very bleak - I've since lost touch with most of the people from that time, but I doubt it's looking up now either.
One of our chief problems when I was working in the auto supplier industry was relentless cost cutting on the part of the major manufacturers (GM was especially bad in this department) - and from what we knew GM certainly wasn't pocketing the difference, all of the cost cutting went directly into hyper-competitive consumer pricing.
As a result our cars are dirt, dirt cheap, unsustainably so, especially if your goal is to keep manufacturing jobs on this side of the ocean. But it's not as if people know this - especially the type like the author of the article, who like to play the victim constantly by making vague straw-man references to the greedy corporation.
I cannot count the number of times I've heard people make the point that some product "probably costs nothing to make anyways" - and it bothers me greatly. For just about everything except the high fashion industry, manufacturing costs are not that far divorced from their retail cost... but consumers who believe this hogwash are also liable to believe that outsourcing is due to rampant greed, as opposed to their unquenchable desire for cheap crap.
One of our chief problems when I was working in the auto supplier industry was relentless cost cutting on the part of the major manufacturers (GM was especially bad in this department) - and from what we knew GM certainly wasn't pocketing the difference, all of the cost cutting went directly into hyper-competitive consumer pricing.
As a result our cars are dirt, dirt cheap, unsustainably so, especially if your goal is to keep manufacturing jobs on this side of the ocean. But it's not as if people know this - especially the type like the author of the article, who like to play the victim constantly by making vague straw-man references to the greedy corporation.
I cannot count the number of times I've heard people make the point that some product "probably costs nothing to make anyways" - and it bothers me greatly. For just about everything except the high fashion industry, manufacturing costs are not that far divorced from their retail cost... but consumers who believe this hogwash are also liable to believe that outsourcing is due to rampant greed, as opposed to their unquenchable desire for cheap crap.