On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:54:58 -0600, Ignoramus18557
wrote:
On 2011-12-26, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:22:45 -0600, dpb wrote:
On 12/25/2011 9:35 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
To anyone who thinks that US manufacturing salaries, including
benefits, are harming our industries or trade, consider that there are
13 other countries that pay mo
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...the-us/250460/
So much for that idea. Some of the countries on that list are among
the most successful exporters of manufactured goods.
Back to the drawing board...
There's something fishy in the counting methinks...
http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/
Overall US production is ~25% larger than Germany--I suspect many of the
SUVs, PUs that are used essentially as passenger cars, etc., are in the
"commercial" classification and therefore not in the above comparison.
There's a much different vehicle mix in US vis a vis Europe.
It's 8:6, roughly, overall production US:Germany
Right. We count SUVs as "light trucks," which typically are compared
with "light commercial vehicle" figures for Europe.
It does skew the production figures, but it doesn't skew the salaries
and benefits.
My point in posting that is actually a long, continuing discussion
we've had here on RCM, in which some people have claimed that we pay
too much (because of unions, in the usual narrative) and that's why we
can't compete in exports. As the Forbes story shows, this is nonsense.
I reported on production and trade for _American Machinist_ and other
magazines, dating back to the mid-'70s, and this is something I've
watched for decades. Exposed to a little research, it's clearly a
bunch of ideological nonsense. You'll hear small businessmen, like Tom
Gardner, bash unions here all the time, complaining that they've
driven up costs so that US companies can't compete.
A little sunshine shows that their problem lies elsewhere.
The unions have greatly diminished, and so has their impact, but I
cannot imagine how they could possibly not be a detriment to efficient
production process.
i
Then a visit to German factories is in order for you. One of my
favorites was Hertel, the cutting tool company. And Volkswagen.
Then take a tour of GM or Ford in the US. Of course, it was much more
extreme back in the '80s, when I visited them. For good measure, throw
in a visit to a non-union automobile plant in the South.
Those German companies are roughly 100% unionized. And those aren't
Japanese-style unions, which I've also seen at work.
You're assuming an adversarial union/management relationship.
--
Ed Huntress