Sept. 24, 2006 - 21:49 MDT

FLYING FIGURES

I think it was my Dad who once said, �I can make things seem to be something they aren�t just by the charts and graphs I draw or the statistics I quote.� And he did some graphing tricks to show exactly what he meant.

There is a Rocky Mountain News editorial in this Sunday�s paper that has lots of figures. Herein quoted in full :

Automaking still thrives

BIG THREE DOWN BUT HARDLY OUT

�First, news got out last week that General Motors and Ford had talked about joining forces � which for the struggling automakers could be more a shotgun wedding than a match made in heaven.

�Then �Dr. Z,� DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche, admitted to analysts that third-quarter U.S. losses at his company may reach $1.5 billion, more than double earlier estimates.�

�The future of this country�s traditional �Big Three� automakers looks increasingly shaky, and many Americans are alarmed. They shouldn�t be. The U.S.A.�s standing in the global marketplace remains formidable, and it will stay that way.�

�To be sure, U. S. carmakers made some horrific blunders. But they remain major competitors abroad. And why pretend there are no benefits to foreign inroads in the domestic market ? How about consumer choice ?�

�Moreover, investment by overseas companies has created employment for tens of thousands of U.S. assembly line workers, designers and engineers. The notion of �American� vs. �foreign� cars is misleading.�

�Creative teams in Southern California designed the Nissan 350Z and Infiniti Q56, Mercedes-Benz builds its M-Class, R-Class and GL-Class vehicles in Alabama.�

�What is an American car after all ? More than 60 percent of Toyotas sold in the United States are built in U.S. factories; 80 percent of Hondas and Acuras sold here are manufactured in the U.S. or Canada. And yet, iln official government statistics, these cars count as �imports.�

�Meantime, Chrysler PT Cruisers and Mercury Milans built in Mexico are considered �domestic� vehicles. So are Saturn VUE SUVs, even though their V-6 engines are assembled at a Honda factory in Ohio. Go figure.�

�While U.S. based companies continue to shed jobs, foreign-based firms are taking up the slack . In 2003, 55,000 of the 320,000 U.S. auto assembly workers � one of every six � were employed by a �foreign� company. There are almost as many U.S. assembly line workers in the industry now and in 1994 when employment peaked.�

�To be sure, the Big Three have jettisoned thousands of union jobs as the result of unsustainable health-care and pension costs. But the idea that high-paying manfacturing work in the auto industry can no longer be found is untrue. Indeed Toyota and Honda have announced plans in recent weeks to ramp up North American production � Toyota by 20 percent, Honda by 10 percent.�

�Without question, when a corporate headquarters closes, it can devastate a local community � from the drain in human capital to the loss of corporate philanthropy.�

�But most of the commentators bewailing globalization care more about manufacturing jobs. The good news is that in the auto industry, blue-collar employment remains strong, even if English may not always be the boss�s� first language.�

++++++++++++++++++++

In my confused mind, ignorantly I wonder, how did our country allow foreign companies to come in here and establish factories ? How have foreign investors gained possession of many things here in our country ? Are we aliens in our own country, working for businesses owned, operated and staffed (upper echelon) by people of other countries ?

Essentially in my feeble mind is the question of where do the profits of foreign owned companies end up ? What is the tax structure here in the U.S. ? What benefits do these foreign companies pay their hired hands ?

It appears that due to management and labor the benefit structure here is skewed and has been for a long time. I remember when Blue Cross first came in as a magical health panacea. The very first thing I noticed was that doctors added on to the fee they got from Blue Cross, so the bennies were dust bunnies more or less.

Seems to me that the HMOs and corporations have allowed the common worker to float on a sea of unreality while the HMOs and drug companies have increased their costs and prices exhorbitantly. Seems to me that way anyhow.

And the guilt is not one sided. I remember contract negotiations places where I worked, seems like always the people wanted big raises each time, rather than holding the line where it was and policing the contract, improving working conditions and such like. And as long as the corporate entity could shuffle things around, raise the price of the finished product � they went along with the workers. Anybody wonder why big-steel disappeared from our country ? About the only thing I know about now are �specialty steel� companies still doing business.

There is something askew when it is cheaper to send the ore overseas to be refined, made into steel and have it shipped back and it still be cheaper that it would be if it were all done here. Same with athletic footwear, clothes of all kinds. Sure wages are cheaper in foreign climes - - So offshoring production makes more money for the manufacturer, but his prices are still as high as ever. And of course citizens of our country are working in auto manufacturing but for a foreign entity and I have seen nothing on the health care and pension plans from those overseas owners of factories in the U.S.

Obviously �domestic� automobiles of U.S, compaines manufactured in Mexico are another example of the owners having work done where it is cheaper. I think it should be illegal for one of our companies to have work done outside of the U.S. - - - but who am I ? I do think the editorial did NOT take the full picture into consideration, just another broadside of FLYING FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog