Somewhat true, but that person making $20 per hour is also spending most of that money right back in the local economy. Its not the kid at Taco Bell making $6/hr that will hire an electrician to come wire a new room, or buy a new 4 wheeler providing a salesman with commission, etc...

 

You're right...BUT, I don't know of ANY suppliers asking for "ludicrous amounts of money", the problem is we have a higher cost of living here(States), and let's face it, the ONLY reason any of us work, is to make a "living". We KNOW the majority of us aren't getting rich, and you CANNOT raise a family on $10-$12/hr, you're better off getting on welfare. And besides, the UAW doesn't assmble Pizza's, their building $20,000-$50,000+ vehicles...some well over 200pcs/shift. I GUARANTEE you, they EARN IT!

Ofcourse, BUT, if the store that sells one for $80 uses better materials and stitches it together better, would you still think a "knock off" is comparable, say after a couple of months of hard use?(No one sells "identical" items for huge discounts over everyone else, you must look closely...)

[ WHY? WHO says? You should make a QUALITY piece for a minimal profit, AT FIRST, then as demand INCREASES, increase your prices and profits...(This Backwards philosohy is the reason we're in the shape we are now..."cut-cut-cut"..
If they want to buy cheap, poor quality "knock-offs", let them!!!...After their market base dimenishes enough, they'll think of how SMALL their actual savings were...if they have a brain, that is..

I can ASSURE you, the guy putting on "Lug Nuts" has WAY MORE to do on his job than that.(I build trucks.. )
You ALL, really should contact a factory in your area and see when they're conducting tours(we do), and go see for yourself...you'll understand why $20/hr. I think their labor is worth more than their(our) current pay.(..10 years in the UAW..)

 

I guess you decided to disregard the first part of my post where I said

I would have to say that majority of the money that is paid to a contractor or supplier is eaten up or pissed away by the upper management. As for the cost of living, I personally think that the standard of living in North American is too high and most people have an unrealistic view of it. But that’s beside the point if you look at Japan where the cost of living is even higher then here, there still producing vehicles with high quality standards at a significantly lower cost than here. And the reason why for the most part is that every person that works for a vehicle manufacture looks for ways to improve things, cut costs, shorten production time and improve quality. They are made to feel like they are an important part of the company and are rewarded for this. Where as over here it’s like put in my time and collect my pay check. Who cares about what happens in other sections of the plant or even company. That for the most part is the mentality of the workers in production line work.

 

They don't have the safety Reg's we do here, and they have Nationalized HealthCare, that's why it's less expensive to build there. Once you wreck one of their light-weight cars in Japan, some that don't even use safety glass windshields, they're SCRAP!...(structural damage)(I used to work in a transPlant here in the States, that's what I was told by Japanese engineers.)
That's why they export a large surplus of engines and tranny's.

 

GM talks about getting cheaper parts to make warenty work cheaper... how about getting parts that break less? perhaps pay a bit more for them and they might be more reliable not the other way around... u get what u pay for GM

 

Nothing wrong with starting pay at $19.83 per hour, as long as the person earning that pay wasn't limited to just one task, or couldn't be moved to other areas of the assembly line as needed.

It's very easy to beat up on unions whenever a company is on the ropes. Sure, unions as a whole are greedy, but what ails GM today isn't unions, it's GM's sluggishness and it's unwillingness to heed warnings (from professional business watchers to about 99% of the people on this website) about an over reliance on SUVs and essentially ignoring cars.



BTW:
GM's health care costs problems aren't with current workers, and probally never will be. It takes just a fraction of workers to put together a car than it did just 20 years ago. Today's workers are also generally are far healthier than ever.

The problem is that GM was absolutely massive in size once apon a time & had an absolutely massive workforce over a period of decades. All those people are now retired, live longer, and get/have gotten health coverage for life. Most all money for health care is spent late in life, and GM's getting hit hard with a massive group of old retirees. GM is stuck with this until a good portion of it's former workers die out, which is expected around the turn of the decade.

Once this happens, combined with the trend towards fewer workers over the past 20-30 years, and a reduction in benefits (newer GM employees get less generous benefits than people who have been ther for many years) GM's burden of health care costs are going to drop like a ton of bricks over the following 10-20 years.

 

did u know the The global expenditure on healthcare and nutrition is $13 billion

5.2 billion is GM... thats kinda sad...

 

Bologna! I think its gonna be made down under, and imported like the Goat was. Now I would love to see it made right here, in the good ol US of A, as much as the next guy, but I don't think it will. At least the Aussies have our backs Good post Guy!