China - get ready

Automotive News - May 14, 2007

Last year, China eclipsed Japan as the world's second largest
automotive market, including commercial vehicles. By the end of the
decade, China could pass the United States.

Like a small planet, China is exerting its gravity on global automakers
and major suppliers. With growth stagnant in mature markets such as
Japan, the United States and Europe, China's booming economy is
irresistible.

Volkswagen AG and General Motors are the top global automakers in
China, but Toyota Motor Corp. is gaining on them quickly.

Meanwhile, Chinese automakers are swiftly gaining expertise. They are
launching their own brands http://www.cheryglobal.com/ building their
engineering staffs and exporting to developing markets in Asia and
Africa. And some are laying plans to export vehicles to the United
States.

China is determined to join the world's major industrial nations. The
auto industry will help it get there.

 

And this is why we need to be inslaving illegal immigrants...put them to
work for us for free so we can build a more inexpensive car.

 

Didn't we already try enslaving one race awhile back? Look what it's
gotten us. Do you really think we should do it again?

NEO

 

"WE?"

It was their race that enslaved them to begin with.

Come to think of it, over the last XX thousand years, many races
were enslaved, including the anglo-saxon.

 

Its not what *he* thinks that matters, is it?

 

Who's "we"? You and who else?

 

if this goes on, the illegals will go to china in a few
years. as the chinese get americanized, they'll need someone
to shovel shit because they'll get to good to do it.
so we need to build cheap, one way liners to aid this coming
migration. a "liberty liner" sounds good.
is there a henry kaiser in the house?

 

Well, I don't mind them building a car, but I sure hope they spruce up their
machine work a bit. I don't see why a country that builds all the worlds
advanced electronics would have such terrible machinists.

 

If the cars they produce are anything like the food they produce, they
will be deadly to drive. How could anyone trust a country that
regularly puts industrial chemicals, sawdust, and garbage like that
in FOOD that it exports?

Ted

 

Very important point. And apparently they produce mass quantities of
vitamins. Heh, we just saw an example of their QC on dog food.

 

After a visit to Mickey D's, the Chinese figured that the Americans
will eat anything.

cordially, as always,

rm

 

After watching a worker at a McDonalds serve something that she
had dropped on the floor, I believe you.

 

Would you like some melamine with that?

 

The best thing we can do is buy as much domestic made items as
possible. Hard to do these days. Being a Tool & Die Maker I have seen
the erosion it first hand.

 

The best thing we can do is buy as many domestic made items as
possible. Tough to do with most shelf items made overseas. Being a
Tool & Die Maker I have seen it first hand.

 

America will moan and bitch about the awful quality of the food and
other products it imports from China, but will buy them nonetheless.
Because the stuff is cheap, and Americans are nothing if not cheap. It
worked for the Japs, it worked for the Koreans, and it'll work for the
Chinese. The crap America buys from Walmart is a pretty good indication
of the value America puts on quality. Meanwhile, when the last American
worker leaves the last American factory, turn out the lights behind you.

 

I have been reading this thread and the great amusement it has provided me
is terrific.
However you say Americans are nothing if not cheap, you could not be more
hopelessly wrong.
Just take a trip to any country that gets a significant number of American
tourists and ask the locals who are the best tippers. You can bet you life,
car and home that the answer you get from the overwhelming majority is
Americans. We over tip to a fault. We also ( I have not yet checked the
numbers to be certain) buy more BMWs than any other country and we all know
what total pieces of crap they are, spending more time in the shop than on
the road. I also suspect we buy more Mercedes Benzes than any other country.
No we are not a country of cheap bastards like the non-tipping Asians, or
under tipping English and French. We are just not very smart when it comes
accumulating money. We spend everything we earn and then borrow more to
spend.

 

ADD:
The people who shop at Walmart don't do so because they are cheap.

The US and China are the world’s two largest economies – but the
citizens of the two nations differ in terms of financial habits. For
example in 2005, savings accounted for at least 30 percent of Chinese
household income while the US registered no savings at all.

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=7284

 

When Henry Ford raised the pay of his workers to $5 per day (double what
other manufacturers were paying), he said he was doing so in part
because he wanted his employee's to be able to buy his cars. If the
American workforce can't make a decent living, they'll stop buying
products made in America, which will lead to fewer people making a
decent living. This death spiral for an economy and a nation's middle
class that we are now seeing is a result of Reagan/Clinton/Bush trade
and economic policies.

Thom Hartmann (Screwed, pp 174)

 

For Merc it's

1. Germany
2. USA
3. UK (not far behind USA)

As regards tipping, these broad statements are, as so many broad statements,
either wrong or based on prejudice and/or ignorance.

Americans might tip 15% because if they didn't (at home) they might have the
staff turn on them.

In the 'Germanic' parts of Europe tips are just tokens to indicate
appreciation, e.g. pay EUR 25 for a 23.70 bill.

In parts of Asia such as Singapore a tip is an insult.


DAS

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