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And it all comes back around to globalization and allowing companies to take advantage of low cost countries, both using labor for assembly and labor for design and engineering.
I wish we would have listened to Ross Perot. Actually, I wish we would have listened to W. Edwards Deming, had we done that it might have helped us stay ahead of the rest of the world.
I listened to, and voted for Ross Perot. I could not understand why he lost. He made so much sense to me at the time, and made difficult topics easy to follow. Perot was the 1st politician I followed.
Also, I've read all about Edward Deming in grad school. Amazing how American industry shunned him. I think the Six Sigma stuff that took the U.S. by storm in the 1990's was just Deming's ideas in a shinier package. Younger people think GE's Jack Welch invented process control. Welch just popularized it. Welch also tried to apply it to the service industry which he failed miserably at. I lived it for 3 years running a part of a GE Capital company. Today, I own a former GE Capital company, and we still use some of it.
I also lived in Dearborn Michigan for 5 years during the auto industry's decline. I was proud that Ford resisted taking Obama's stimulus cash, yet still survived. I'm glad Ford's still around, and just added 3,000 jobs there.
I recently saw the Ford & Ferari movie...loved it! I lived just 2 miles from Ford's big glass box corp HQ. I started working at age 12 caddying at Dearborn Country Club, and the Ford Motor execs provided a lot of encouragement to me.
And that is why the U.S. auto manufacturing disappeared, that and low quality once Europe and Japan started producing good quality vehicles. I have an Uncle, now retired fortunately, who had one of those 70k Union Jobs and he would talk about getting together with his work friends at BBQ's and laughing about how much more they made than teachers or police and doing no real work for it.
Don't know about teachers but police where I'm make around 150k when you factor in OT, etc. I know a few who make above 200k. The unifying between police and Detroit autoworkers is unionization. Now fatcat CEOs are keeping that money instead of passing an extra 10k per employee. You think those CEOs, CFO, etc are doing any real work than an assembly worker isn't? They maybe a bit smarter and luckier - usually politically connected - but harder working they ain't.
I know back in the early 90s, someone working a bit of OT with a highschool diploma, could make 130k on some line in one of those auto companies in the Detroit area. Even in the 90s, during that spiral. Now I hear about 60k 30 years later, and I can't help but laugh. 130k in the 90s would be something like 255k today. You won't even get that working a high paid tech job in San Francisco. Food for thought.
I listened to, and voted for Ross Perot. I could not understand why he lost. He made so much sense to me at the time, and made difficult topics easy to follow. Perot was the 1st politician I followed.
Also, I've read all about Edward Deming in grad school. Amazing how American industry shunned him. I think the Six Sigma stuff that took the U.S. by storm in the 1990's was just Deming's ideas in a shinier package. Younger people think GE's Jack Welch invented process control. Welch just popularized it. Welch also tried to apply it to the service industry which he failed miserably at. I lived it for 3 years running a part of a GE Capital company. Today, I own a former GE Capital company, and we still use some of it.
I also lived in Dearborn Michigan for 5 years during the auto industry's decline. I was proud that Ford resisted taking Obama's stimulus cash, yet still survived. I'm glad Ford's still around, and just added 3,000 jobs there.
I recently saw the Ford & Ferari movie...loved it! I lived just 2 miles from Ford's big glass box corp HQ. I started working at age 12 caddying at Dearborn Country Club, and the Ford Motor execs provided a lot of encouragement to me.
Great reply. I agree with you on the Six Sigma thing. I have to say, I'm definitely not a fan of Welch, he pioneered the practice of offshoring. I'm sure shareholders loved him.
hard to believe people walked in and applied for low wage jobs.
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