DIYbanter - View Single Post - OT -- A Car Wreck Made in Washington - Can Democrats afford to let Detroit succeed?

David Billington

wrote:
On Nov 29, 3:48 pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message

...

On Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:27:28 -0500, the infamous "Ed Huntress"
scrawled the following:

"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...

Holman Jenkins asks a very good question: Why is it that the Big Three
automakers can make cars profitably everywhere in the world but the US?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765959966358461.html

The Wall Street Journal, 28 November 2008.

Joe Gwinn

An interesting point of view, typical of the WSJ's editorials, but it
skips
over some crucial facts. For example, German car manufacturers have been
quite profitable, but their big union (IG Metall) has demanded and gotten
the highest wages in the world -- roughly $6/hour higher than the wages
paid
to GM's UAW workers.

But of course Germany has a national health care system that doesn't
directly come out of the car makers' pockets; on the other hand, German
automakers pay more into the safety nets, at least those related to
temporary or permanent unemployment. In the end, German car manufacturers
pay more for labor than car makers do in the US.

Velly intelesting, mein herr.

So that undermines much of what the editorial says. It doesn't appear
they've found the mark yet.

Don't most German cars sell for 150-300% of the American car prices?
That's why they're still so profitable.

I was looking for national averages but gave up. Yes, I was thinking the
same thing. Then the question becomes, why do they get so much more for
their cars? I'll bet they're getting close to twice as much per pound. g

The market and marketing issues in this regard have been tossed around for
decades, but in the end, it's management decisions.

--
Ed Huntress

The price of luxury goods is based on customer demand and perception,
ie. charge what the market will bear.

My information is very dated but the last time I was in Germany I
priced a Mercedes (forget which model, but probably the lower priced
utilitarian sedan). Converted into Canadian $$ at that time it was
not unreasonable. However, at the dealer's in Toronto the price for
that model was outrageous at least in my opinion. The shipping cost
from Germany was $800 for a private vehicle at that time. Even with
taxes and import duty it was still way too much.

Bought a Volvo instead... drove it to the scrap yard after 14 years
and 375,000 Km. It was the vehicle my sons learned to drive in :-)).

Philosophically I believe that a civilized country ought to have BASIC
medical coverage as part of the social contract, ie. funded through
general revenues by the government.

I can go with that but I live these days in the UK having spent 12 years
growing up in the US, and have only rarely used the NHS for minor items.
I have seen with amusement some discussions, on a glass related
newsgroup, between US and Canadians about nationalised healthcare, where
the US people arguing got highly incensed by what they seemed to see as
a Canadian national health system whose funding sprang from the ground
rather than being payed for by tax revenue, whereas they in the US had
to pay personally for their healthcare.

A parallel private plan should be permitted also for those who wish to
pay for it. This is one of the great failings of the Canadian
plan... The impatient sick with $$ go to the USA or India.

Wolfgang