Japans Cash for clunkers
 

So they finally went and started their own cash for clunkers over there. Bastards excluded our cars from being included in the program. Its what I said about their cars from our program all along.

WTF our "stimulus money went to germany, japan and lord knows where else is beyond me.

I have been telling y'all about the things they told my wife when she was teaching over ther, figured no one believed me. We need more tarriffs.

I been listening. Problem was the american car companies weren't.

Say what you will, the Japanese did/do a much better job of protecting their car industry than we do. They "inspect" their cars every year for safety/pollution/running violations, after about 5 years or so, it is cheaper to buy a new car than pay to have an older one brought up to snuff, thereby ensuring a large demand for new cars every year. They have a strict size "proportioning" system for their cars, so that if a car is so long, it can only be so wide, or pay a huge tariff. Another thing they do is to decrease insurance & licensing fees on cars that get better mileage, so that a car that gets 40 MPG only has to pay, say, a third or half as much for insurance & licensing as one that gets 15-20 MPG...and the more efficient cars also have higher speed limits than the gas-guzzlers. Japan also drives on the right, like the Brits do. We complain that American cars are systematically shut out of Japanese markets, & that is partly true, but THEY studied OUR market, & developed cars to fit it, LHD & all, why couldn't Detroit have done the same thing ? Plus, their government has/had a ministry that is specifically designed to help their mfgers deal w/the problems of trade w/other countries-Can you see the antagonistic Washington establishment ever going for something like that ? Too bad, because that's one of the things that helped Japan dismantle our consumer electronics industry-and pretty much wreck our car industry, too. But it takes government, management & labor working together-Something that is like holy water to Dracula in this country...

What you say is true, Sandy.

But, if our government were to create a "Ministry of Auto Industry Affairs" they would be accused of "meddling" and have half of the country screaming "communism". Everything you've described here, that the Japanese Government does, (And it seems to have worked.), would be considered "Big Government" here. This factor, coupled with the fact that our system is so damned corrupt, is why such things don't happen here. Just look at what happened when President Obama named an "Auto Czar". That move alone probably spawned a hundred more "Tea Parties". It's rediculous.

And please don't ask me to explain anything "Detroit" does. I spent over half of my life in the shadow of the automotive industry. My Dad worked at Chrysler for 22 years, and I worked for Federal-Mogul for 12. Trust me, you'll go insane trying to figure those people out. And it's NOT all the UAWs fault. Management is just as stupid, if not worse. It's an industry that doesn't give a flopping shit about it's customers or the country it's based in.

Maybe at one time Detroit did great things, but that was long, long ago.

Dave

I've been listening. But, then, I already knew that. The people here, see Japanese dominance in autos as a result of fair cometition. The folks over there see their success as the spoils of having duped the village idiot. The same people who believe in "free and unfettered" trade, are the ones who are getting screwed because the rest of the world firmly believes in "predatory" trade. There will be no future for the U.S. industry until we get just as ruthless, tradewise, as they are.

Dave

We could have insisted that the Big Three come up with better iron. Hell I recall the first Honda Civic, the one with the trailing link rear end and an engine that red lined at over 9000 RPM. After one Canadian winter they looked like Swiss cheese. The first Camrys were iron dogs as well. You could not keep fenders on a Datsun (Nissan).

Most of the blame belongs in management's lap, the people on the line built what they were given. But government fell flat on its ass with all the free and open market crap. Then we had all the States giving the Japanese companies tax holidays just so they would build plants here, no State government was giving the big Three any tax breaks.

Then came the constant bad mouthing of the Big Three regardless of what they built, like the recent yada yada about building gas guzzlers - that was exactly what the people were buying, they could not give away the compacts. For example, JD Power downed the Hummer because the people that bought them were not happy with the gas mileage - WTF did they expect?

H.L Mencken was right.

What's worse is what went on during the debate over the loans to American car companies. The senators and congressmen, all Republican by the way, from those states were the ones arguing the loudest to "let free market forces work" and allow the industry to die. Of course, it couldn't have had the slightest thing to do with those foreign car companies who built in their states.

John

As an aside, one of the states doing some arguing was Ohio. Ohio has both domestic (GM and Chrysler) and Japanese (Honda and Nissan) plants. I guess they've decided the future lies with the Japanese and couldn't give a rats ass about the part of their economy that's dependent on the domestic end of the industry?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the whole "let the industry die" mentality. We heard it about the auto industry, the banking industry, the economy in general, "Let it fail, let it die, let it hit bottom" seems to be the mantra with so many people. To me that is just so defeatist, fatalistic and "narrow of vision".

Especially when it comes to the general economy. Do these idiots have any idea what they are asking for? Maybe with a specific industry, the impact is only so bad, but the national economy? I guess if you have the mentality that it's only "somebody else" and not yourself that's going to do all of the suffering, -------then you don't care? But, just how in the hell do you build a strong nation with that sort of model-----"So long as I'm okay, I don't give a shit about you. Drop dead, asshole."?

Call me naive, but I don't see how this line of thinking could ever
build a strong nation.:confused:

"United we stand, divided we fall." makes much more sense to me.:)

Dave

See, I think this is the problem. The unions, the companies, & the gov't oughta be sitting down, & trying to work thru their problems, instead of playing "Who Shot John ?" w/each other. There's PLENTY of blame to go around-Ain't no "Babes in Toyland" here. You've got a leaky boat w/a blazing fire on the other end-And these jokers wanna argue who's gonna man the bucket...