Good reference. BTW, it was a POS Ford that drove me to the Japanese. Mercury Lynx(probably manufactured in Mexico) threw a piston before 2 year drive train warranty was up. Dealer replaced piston and head but rest of engine was bad and block finally had to be replaced. Said it was part my fault and would only pay half so I sued and won from dealer and Ford to pay whole bill. This was about 20 years ago but I will never consider buying another Ford because of poor product with shabby treatment by dealer and Ford.
We had a Mazda that ran like a top for 95,000 miles when it was stolen and stripped. My wife refused to consider buying another because in the meantime, as your reference points out, Ford bought part of Mazda.
Newhouse may have written it, but it doesn't necessarily mean his interpretation is correct. Mostly these global deals for manufacturing have been negotiated arrangements w/ the associated countries made as part of market access deals.
The biggest expense for companies like GM is the retired workers, not the ones working. When the rest of the boomers hit the system most US companies will be in that boat although "early outs" have already put a lot of them in the system.
If the posts in this thread is any indication much of your (America's) problems is the inability to recognize that the only way to compete is to do it better and cheaper. That is unless you have a monopoly product like large passenger aircraft. Even then the comfort zone didn't last too long as the Airbus vs Boeing story showed.
I would have thought by now people would have realized that patriotism doesn't count for much when one pulls out a wallet to pay for a purchase. Demonizing a competitor is even less effective.
Now I don't have a formula for how to become better and cheaper else I would have practiced it myself pronto. Its when I see the same tired old denials as appears in this thread and elsewhere I take some comfort in that America and the EU doesn't have a plan of any description to stop the China juggernaut.
The strategic goal of China is to improve the lives of its peoples. At present there are at least 600 millions who have less than a dollar a day. That is already twice the population of the US. It will take at least 20 years if not more to lift these people out of poverty. That is a massive task for a very modest gain. So don't expect China to change its present course - low wages, slave work conditions, cutting corners, etc. - on a dime because you demand that China adopt the same factory floor conditions you have in the West. Work conditions will improve of course, but based on realities on the ground. If you insist on western standards now that can be easily accommodated by setting up special sanitized zones to manufacture only for your market. You wouldn't like the price penalties.
Its close enough to Christmas to watch how the present campaign against Made in China will play out. My bet is that it will be like any fad of the season and die a quiet death. On the other hand you have a presidential election campaign season coming up. Bashing China is a pretty safe headline getter. Well we'll have to let the monthly trade volume and financial figures tell the real story.
The competitive stance of Boeing vis a vis Airbus is back in favor of Boeing at present based on sales. The aforementioned arrangements w/ various places (including China) for the parceling out of work for Boeing products are readily available. IIRC, a similar arrangement was reached not long ago w/ the Chinese as well...
Both Airbus and Boeing part out manufacturing jobs like this in order to garner sales of the final product to that company. Simple economics, airplanes cost mucho millions and each one they sell more than makes up for the absurd outsourcing model they employ.
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