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Tax cuts aren't going to create demand for HD motorcycles. The Boomers who loved them are aging, and there isn't the demand there once was. That's not Trump's fault, that is demographics. Meanwhile there have been a lot of hires elsewhere, business start ups, etc. Look at the stats man.
How quickly we forget. Remember how Trump killed the TPP? TPP would eliminated the high tariffs in 12 countries that Harley exports to. Trump effectively extinguished that market for Harley. HD had no kind words for Trump after he killed the TPP. Rather than cherry pick what WOULD work in the TPP and keep that, instead Trump had to destroy it entirely, in an appeal to his base - after all it was "Obama's plan". Throw the baby out with the bath water, shoot yourself squarely in the foot - this is how Trump operates.
Guess they were not big enough. Maybe if they took them down to 5% or 0%
If you are losing money tax cuts do you no good. Where tax cuts help is increasing the return on profitable goods and services and leaving companies more money to invest in those areas
This ain’t that complicated. Any percentage of zero is zero. Liberals too dumb to understand that.
so then we agree, tax cuts are not a panacea that will magically solve all of societies ills
Who ever made the claim that tax cuts were any such thing? Individuals and corporations get to keep more of the money they earn, and that means the money itself is being used more efficiently, as nobody is less efficient with money than government, and it also increases the individual power while decreasing the collective's.
These are generally positive things, but not magical or utopian. Tax cuts by themselves only solve the ill of taxes being too high. Who made the claim they were a panacea for every ill of society?
That's hardly political. HD rested on their laurels for ages, believing that their brand mystique would somehow sell overpriced products forever, and they did the absolute minimum in product development. They should have realized that eventually, you can't uphold a rebel image and sell at lawyer-and-accountant pricing. So now they're facing a crowd of buyers who look at them as a byword for "midlife crisis".
They should have copied Ducati ages ago. Another motorcycle company that had a niche product with very limited appeal (in Ducati's case, achingly beautiful, temperamental, uncomfortable racing bikes), but one that didn't dig in its heels. Ducati sells bikes in a multitude of varieties now - racers, cafe racers, off-roaders, motard, retro and even the occasional tourer. An object lesson right under HD's nose, but...
Some a them Ducatis run on gas spring valves.
A few years ago, my friend came to my house riding a brand new Royal Enfield, still made in India.
Then just last year a guy at work showed up on a new Indian, made somewhere on the east coast.
Hell, Sonny Barger used to say years ago if it weren't for the image thing he'd rather ride a Beemer and I knew the co-owner of a Harley store in NJ who'd tell you much the same thing.
Sonny Barger did or still does ride a BMW. He said that the biggest mistake he made was getting his "buddies" to ride Harley's because mechanically they are junk.
From what I read it's an uphill fight getting them to even want to drive.
Try finding a new car with manual transmission these days. They want nothing to do with them. If you can't do it from a phone, forget it. Another reason GA is in a steady decline. Yes, I know I am generalizing. There is even a TV commercial where a kid, and his friend can't change a flat tire, and they don't know what a lug wrench is, and are perfectly OK with it.
Curious if anyone knows how HD's plant in India is doing?
A excellent question. From what I have read that plant assembles the 500 and 750 models which are also made in Kansas City, although I don't know what else is done in either facility.
I see that they recently opened an assembly facility in Thailand as well.
Harley Davidson is a truly global brand. They manufacture product in one or another foreign country and ship to other foreign countries, and perhaps into the USA from there. Patriots might think of it as an American company, but that doesn't seem to be much the case any longer. They have graduated from exporting product to exporting investment capital (and potential jobs).
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