On 12/26/2011 1:52 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:22:50 -0800, George
wrote:

On 12/26/2011 1:03 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:23:38 -0600, "Pete
wrote:


Ed Huntress wrote:

On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:54:58 -0600, Ignoramus18557
wrote:

On 2011-12-26, Ed wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:22:45 -0600, 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.

The few end mills and what not that I have recently purchased in the
Hertel brand are made in Korea. Does this mean that German jobs are
being exported and soon Germany will be in similarly bad shape to the US
manufacturing wise?

Hertel was bought by Kennametal, an American company, in 1993. They
now use the cachet of the Hertel name to sell crap to Eastern European
countries.

What makes you think it's "crap"?

Substitute "stuff" if you prefer. I haven't bought any, but shop
people I've talked to say it ain't the Hertel they knew.

Maybe they're selling just as good stuff as before.