mike wrote:
MKloepster wrote:
snip


Cheap *******s who won't pay the higher cost of skilled American labor
are the
ones steering this particular ship;

snip

Those cheap *******s are US!!!
How many times have you gone down to the full service store to look at
stuff then called around the discount places to save a penny? WE won't
pay a nickel more than we have to. DEMAND drives the ship. WE won't
buy good stuff, so THEY don't supply good stuff.

There's cheap, there's fair and there's gouge.

I just posted this on alt.autos.subaru a
little while ago...

I was looking at the maintance
records for my daughter's Civic last night.
The previous owner paid $1700 for major tuneup,
timing belt, and brake job. I did all and more
on the Outback for $400 in parts. Now I can't
believe that a) the Civic is easier to work
on than the Outback, b) the Civic's parts are
more expensive than the Outback, and c) the
mechanic/shop deserved to make $1300 in labor
on a job that couldn't take more than 8 hours.

That's over $160/hr. My company only charges
$100/hr for custom electonics designs. At
some point the car repair trade decided they
should be compensated like doctors and lawyers.

Sometimes people choose cheap because they
are tired of being screwed.