On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:51:53 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Carl Byrns" wrote in message
.. .

And what would you do, Ed? Close the borders to imports? Yeah, that'll
work. See how well local content laws worked in Brazil or East
Germany.

I'm thinking about it, and an idea that's beginning to look attractive is
the one that every country in the world (including those of western Europe)
apply to our aerospace and military hardware manufacturers: 100% offsets. Do
you see any problem with it? I'm floating the idea around.

Ed Huntress


Yeah, Ed. I see a lot off problems with offsets.
Maybe later- you can't dance away from my previous post with a
handwave.

As for closing the border to imports, look at what happened to the US
auto product when there was no external competition: the Plymouth
Volare, Ford Granada, Chevy Nova. 'Economy' cars that got 14 mpg when
they ran, which wasn't often.

Again-
If you want to compare our workers with those in low-wage countries, you can
say that we aren't getting as much for our dollar as we would if we employed
people who have no plumbing and no cars. Is that what you're comparing us
with?

Why not? Much of assembly line work is broken down into tasks simple
enough for a well trained monkey. You don't need a Phi Beta Kappa key
(or indoor plumbing) to hang wheels on a car.

True story:
A US car plant was having terrible door/hood/trunk fit problems
despite the fact that an inspection machine was used to detect
misalignment. The problem was traced to the fact that the workers
assigned to adjust the doors/hoods/trunks couldn't read and therefore
couldn't understand the computer screen on the inspection machine and
didin't adjust anything. They stood around 8 hours a day doing nothing
and getting paid quite well for it.

How can you say these guys are any better at building cars (or any
production line job) than Chinese peasants would be?

Hell, the Chinese peasants probably work with a lot more gusto than
the US workers, secure in the knowledge if they screw up, they'll be
back plowing the fields. No one wants to step in ox ****.

How are the US workers worth $25.63 when they can't read? Or when they
stand around 8 hours a day and do nothing?

It's all relative, Carl. Which way do you want the US to head? Toward two
rice balls per day, with all of us commuting to work on bicycles?

And what would you do, Ed? Close the borders to imports? Yeah, that'll
work. See how well local content laws worked in Brazil or East
Germany.

Ed, every time a US industry is threatened, they blame the aggressor.
When the Japanese started building high-quality economy cars, the US
car companies all cried they couldn't compete because the Japs will
work for a bowl of rice. When Korea started building ships, cars, and
computers, it was more rice bowls. When factories went up in Mexico,
it was tacos.
Now it's China and rice again.
Do you see a pattern here? The US industry gets fat, dumb, and happy
and then cries foul at the first inkling of foriegn competition. It
never thinks of ways to compete.

-Carl