The good news is when Chrysler rolls out its $7,000 cars made in Communist China by workers working for less than a $1 an hour it will actually be marked up to $10,000 after all the safety features required for U.S. roads are added in.
It appears the communists were not able to win the Cold War because they could not keep up with our defense spending and match our amount of nuclear missiles, so they are trying to win by exporting American jobs to China. According to the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler will begin importing the cars that are priced less than half of the lowest current Chrysler product in partnership with Chery Automobile Co. The company is owned by the local government of Wuhu, located in the southeastern province of Anhui.
It’s news like this that makes it clear why under President Bush’s watch we have lost more than 3 million manufacturing jobs. Bush has completely ignored the manufacturing sector to the point that the alleged new jobs being created are not making up for the lost manufacturing jobs in both quantity and quality. The current tax policies, unfair trade polices and lack of enforcement of trade polices by the current administration is making it impossible for U.S. automakers to compete globally, and – as the ownership of Chery illustrates - foreign governments are helping foreign auto companies compete by providing health care for employees for help with health care and even manipulating currency to make their cars cheaper and U.S. cars more expensive. U.S. car companies are not just competing against foreign car companies they are competing against foreign governments.
I fail to see how U.S. automakers can compete against a communist country - because that's exactly what they are doing - or how importing the cars here can be good for anyone. This administration continues to make it attractive for U.S. companies to offshore jobs, and there is no way we can compete against a country that pays workers less than a dollar an hour. We will never win a race to the bottom, and why would we want to?
Under free trade agreements, we should be exporting our products to sell in China, but the only thing we are exporting is our decent paying jobs. Not only is China not allowing open markets, but with some three-quarters of the population living in poverty how can they even afford to buy anything? China has unfettered and unrestricted access to U.S. markets. That’s despite the fact they compete with slave labor wages and production and wages and benefits manipulated and controlled by a Communist Chinese regime. The obvious question is why do we allow them unrestricted access to sell products made in China when they do not reciprocate?
It seems ironic that people like U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, is constantly speaking on his cable show and elsewhere about inferior products - especially auto parts - that are being manufactured in China that are exact look-alikes, complete with packaging and company name, that is costing U.S. manufactures as much as $250 billon a year in lost revenue, but we are now embracing them. In fact, Chery was also sued by GM Daewoo for copying that company's Chevrolet Spark. Why are we allowing this unfettered access without addressing the rip-off of American products, copyright infringement and patent infringement?
Then there is the obvious question of quality. We are getting products from China that lack the basic quality control procedures of products made in the U.S. to the point that it is endangering lives. Just last month more than 900,000 tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol - a sweet, syrupy poison - were pulled off the shelves of U.S. stores.
Some Republicans have no problem with buying products from an enemy that just a few years ago we were calling our ideological enemy bent on destroying us. It was just some 20 years ago when former President and conservative hero Ronald Reagan called the second largest communist nation in the world an evil empire, but now we are buying cheap cars from the largest communist country because they can make them cheaper by paying workers dirt-cheap wages.
Some are saying there’s a double standard because the Democratic leadership is not speaking out against this like they did last fall when Republican Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, as head of Amway, invested more than $200 million in Communist China for building plants to manufacture the company's products. I think they should, but I don’t see how much effect the governor of a state and a state party chairman can have on federal trade policy.
It should also be pointed out that they were pointing out the lies of a political candidate during an election. DeVos was falsely claiming that investment was creating jobs in Michigan. If Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda ran for political office making the same untrue claim then Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer would be 100 percent correct in debunking that claim. Frankly, LaSorda should stick to managing the Dodgers.
DeVos also claimed that Chinese law says if you sell to the Chinese it must be built or manufactured in China, and that only those products made in China are sold in China. The first part is true, but Brewer presented proof that DeVos lied when he said those products made in China were not sold here. That begs the question: why don’t we tell the Chinese and Chrysler if you sell to Americans it must be built or manufactured in America like the Chinese do?
10 comments:
Thank you Mr. Clinton for giving us GATT and putting US trade in the hands of foreign bureaucrats in the WTO - which China is now a member of.
To be blunt, both parties suck on trade for the most part.
And I sure won't buy a Chinese car. I won't even buy a Mazda. Still foreign.
Thanks Mr. Bush for refusing to enforcing the most basics elements of the free trade agreements and not only making it easy but encouraging your rich cronies to ship jobs offshore and losing more than 3 million manufacturing jobs on your watch.
dude - i don't mind you being xenophobic, biased because you doh't know better, but at least you should get your facts straight.
For starters, you keep calling China a Communist country. In fact it is communist only in name. If you don't believe you, get a dictionary or go to Wikepeadia and get a definition of Communism - it is a system that disallows private property. But private property is booming in China! China is not yet democratic for sure, but certainly it is NOT communist any more.
You claim China dont't buy any US made goods, obviously you did not hear about those mega orders for Boeing jets or Catepillar cranes. Most of the exports from China to the US are made by US multinationals operating in China.
I see you live in Michigan, so I will throw in my 2 cents about US auto industry. It is in its pathetic state because of its own inability to produce quality cars. It is always easy to blame others, be it the Japanese, Germans or the Chinese nowadays. But in the long run it will get us nowhere.
Well, “dude,” I see why you posted anonymously with that ridiculous post. I am far from xenophobic, and not one right-winger has explained to me how we can go from their hero saying communism was an evil empire to exporting jobs there so stockholders can get richer. China is not a Communist country? You have to be joking? You might want to tell the rest of the world that because they believe it. According to the CIA Fact Book and the world China is a Communist country; “no substantial political opposition groups exist, although the government has identified the Falungong spiritual movement and the China Democracy Party as subversive groups.” I don’t need a dictionary, but apparently you do. Here’s a link, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html#Govt.
No, I didn’t hear about Boeing jets or Caterpillar cranes, so perhaps you can provide a link. I know this; as soon as the Chinese figure out the technology they will be making them over there for slave wages because they can make counterfeit parts and violate patent and copyright laws with immunity because our government does not enforce free trade agreements. That’s if the jobs aren’t shipped over there first because the company wants to make the product with slave wages.
Yes, I live in Michigan, and I can see you don’t because you know nothing about it. Do you even live in the U.S.? The U.S. auto industry is not in a pathetic state, and the problems it is encountering is because of the lack of free trade agreement enforcement and the unfair competition it faces from foreign governments, not manufacturers. Saying we don’t produce quality cars is just stupid and a lie. Our cars as good or better. The only problem is we have not responded to the sudden demand for small cars because of high fuel prices as fast as foreign countries. We can compete and beat any foreign country for quality when there is a level playing field.
well,
it doest't takee a genuis. But, do you ever wonder if this is the same CIA that told us there was weapon of mass destruction in Iraq?
dude - again, be good yourself before blaming someone else, this is just good Karma.
Cheers!
the Chinese are not here YET. so what do you do, blame the Japanese for Detroit's car problems?
Yes, I live in Michigan, and I can see you don’t because you know nothing about it. Do you even live in the U.S.? The U.S. auto industry is not in a pathetic state, and the problems it is encountering is because of the lack of free trade agreement enforcement and the unfair competition it faces from foreign governments, not manufacturers.
It wasn’t the CIA that told us there were WMDs in Iraq it was shrub. Are disputing what is in the fact book, and if so which ones? And what should I blame myself for?
I already told you the reason for the Big 3s problems.
US automakers' problems are the result of pandering to american materialism and self-centeredness. We are now being forced to live the way the rest of the "free world" has for years.
BTW, CG, the second sentence of your subtitle has a typo .... closer and closet - might want to run a spellcheck :)
It seems to me that’s what companies are supposed to do: give the customer they want. I don’t think there’s any doubt the U.S. automakers are competing against other countries, not just foreign automakers. They are gritting help with health care and other help, and U.S. automakers were luckily to even get five minutes of Bush’s time.
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