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Re: Re: @ Perfect Flag Burning Day
Fair warning:
The following is kinda long and rambly 'cause I didn't
want to spent a LOT of time on it, I am at work, so there's
that obligation.......
>In a message dated 7/7/99 11:50:26 AM, Ysobelle writes:
<<< Well, not one for making blanket statements or anything, are you? What
evil? And all of it? That's a pretty big plot of land. And take back
ownership from whom? The Japanese? It's the Belgians or Swiss who own a
larger chunk of American real estate, as I recall. And if you're talking
about industry, well, Honda of America employs an awful lot of Americans,
last I knew. We don't function in a vacuum. It's a global economy, and a
global community. We're not immune to the effects of, say, the Japanese
recession. And living without oil from the Mid-East would make life a whole
lot more difficult over here. Personally, my world would be a far emptier
place without Ribena from England. >>>
First of all; Ysobelle, what's Ribena?
>Well OK. Who controls how the congress votes? Show me how many votes there
>are that special interest lobbies don't control. If you think this isn't
>true,you need a lobotomy.
Lobbies and such have had large influences for a looonnngg time. As information
became easier to distribute, we learned more and more about what's been there
all along.
>The Japanese have huge lobbies.
And they're always decorated soooo nicely. 8-)
> Anyone remember how
>much Ronald Reagan got when he left office to speak in Japan. Think that
>wasn't a pay off for him letting them dump all their steel here? Honda of
>America? We assemble them here.And the money goes back there. How many US
Automakers are in Japan?
How much did RR get?
See, I work for a Japanese company. I've been here since '92. All during that
time, if
we imported partially completed components (for the auto industry) we had to pay
a "dumping fee" as a penalty for importing parts we could make here. Why did we
do that? At the time, our production capacities could not meet the demand of
our
product. As time has passed and we've streamlined our process, we can now meet
our goals without importing. This is a similar scenario as the steel industry
faced. Thier
problem was compounded by the antiquated and inefficient mills that remained
from the
pre-war era when labor and materials were relatively cheap. New mills built
overseas
as industry and technology spread naturally outpaced the old US mills that were
forced
out of business if they didn't modernize. New mills being built here by US and
foreign
investors are currently bringing back some of the US-produced steel industry
that had
disappeared over the years.
As for money leaving our shores, I don't totally agree. Our plant was built
with funds supplied
by our Japanese parent company to the tune of $15-20 million that was brought
from Japan
and spent here. Money earned from the sales of our product to US-based auto
makers
is distributed to the employees to freely spend in our community. Most of the
revenue we
generate stays here and is either payroll or reinvested into the plant with a
small percentage
of the profit going back to 'corporate'.
You probably don't realize that both Honda and Toyota make cars here that are
imported
back to Japan as well as cars for the US market. Where does the money go that a
Japanese family
spends on a Honda from Marysville? Some goes to Honda-Japan, some goes to Honda
in Marysville, OH. That's money that might not get here if Honda hadn't built
an assembly
plant here. If you'd like to draw a parallel, the US is Japan's Mexico. Labor
and operations
costs are so high in Japan, that it's far cheaper to come here to a less
expensive economy
and produce goods for greater profit. Most people are in business to make
money, and as
long as they play by the rules of the game, they deserve to make as much as they
can.
Generally, companies that lose business to non-US sites weren't willing to make
the neccessary
changes in order to become profitable enough to maintain themselves.
I'll quickly say that a big reason US automakers aren't in Japan is that there's
nowhere for them
to build a facility in order to produce cars. Japan's industrial volume is near
critical mass, that's
another reason to move to the spacious US. Besides, of the cars small enough
for Japan's
narrow and tight roadways, most are rebadged imports from Japanese or Korean
auto makers,
so there's not much point in adding $100's of dollars to a car just to make it
look like a Chevy
or Ford.
>How about the religious right,the gun lobby,Archer
>Daniels Midland, The tobacco industry to name a few, See no vote by proxy
>there? The truth is almost every vote taken, is based on legal bribery.
>Yes,that is the number one problem.
Blah, blah, blah. Yak, yak, yak. Obvious, obvious, obvious.
>I don't want to hear global economy either.
That's like not wanting to hear the sky is blue.
>First,even up the playing
>field,then fair trade. We should not subsidize the Mexicans and Canadians
>with the jobs of American workers. Free trade must be fair trade. This
>premise that if you are against the trade policies that somehow translates
>that you are against free trade is a misrepresentation of the truth.
Unless you're willing to spent a large percentage more for nearly anything
you buy, that's just the way it's gotta be.
> And I
>for one don't want a world body deciding what the founders gave the three
>branches of government the duty to do.
Times change, luddite. The world's a bigger place than 13 renegade colonies.
>We should decide fairly these issues with these things in mind.
>a) Our sovereignty
>b) Our best interest
>c) The voice of the people and not corporations
>d) and a reverence to our constitution and history.
>
>I stand by my blanket statement and my country. I sometimes find it sickening
>that some people would always rationalize the sacrifice of others for the
>common good.
As much as I disagree with you, you should stand by your beliefs. A few things
might come out of it. You'll maybe eventually prove us right or wrong, or we
may just find some middle common ground. Just lay off the Canadians, they're
a decent bunch of people; more so than most I've put up with my entire life
here.
8-)
>Put a human face on your belief and watch it change. I watched the Canadians
>dump their beef in America and starve the small farmers.
later, much later,
AaronB