http://youtu.be/66xfvOB5LTg
Another video for all you car guys.
Paul Lamar
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Outsourcer-In-Chief: Obama Of General Motors
At a Colorado pep rally, President Obama praised his GM bailout as an example for
American industry to follow.
“The American automobile industry has come roaring back…So now I want to say what we
did with the auto industry, we can do it in manufacturing across America. Let’s make
sure advanced, high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in China. And that
means supporting investment here. Governor Romney … invested in companies that were
called ‘pioneers’ of outsourcing. I don’t want to outsource. I want to insource.”
Applause!
According to Obama, GM does everything right. It offers high-paying jobs to American
workers. It invests at home. GM put American manufacturing back in the high-tech race
on American soil. The new GM is good for America, and America is good for GM, as a
former GM chairman declared in 1953. GM is back where it should be.
We need to look no further than General Motors’ own figures to learn that GM
outsources almost two thirds of its jobs overseas. Less than one in five GM vehicles
are manufactured in the United States.
To be exact: GM’s December 31, 2011 annual report shows General Motors of North
America accounting for 98,000 of the 207,000 GM jobs worldwide. But 12,000 of these
jobs are in Canada and 11,500 are in Mexico. Accordingly, GM has 74,500 jobs in the
United States and 122,500 abroad, even after Obama’s touted surge in Detroit jobs.
Almost two thirds of GM’s jobs are in other countries.
GM’s outsourcing is not a slip. GM clearly states that foreign investment and
outsourcing of jobs are an integral parts of its growth strategy.
Grace D. Lieblein, President and CEO of GM Mexico, for example, proudly announced in
a GM Mexico press release:
“75 years ago, General Motors came to our country with a dream to fulfill: turning
Mexico into a prosperous nation for the benefit of millions of families. Today, after
75 years into the adventure, we have achieved goals that seemed unattainable, thanks
to the efforts and dedication of Mexican talent. During the 75 years GM Mexico has
been in operation, the subsidiary has produced 7 million vehicles, 20 million
engines, and 4 million transmissions. GM Mexico employs 11,500 direct and about
90,000 indirect employees.”
So it now appears that GM’s goal is to make Mexico prosperous, not the good old US of
A! In the same press release, GM heralds its upcoming billion dollar investments in
its Mexican plants (versus a $100 million investment in Rochester, New York). It
should have saved the Rochester announcement for another day.
GM is no less ambitious with respect to manufacturing in the BRIC countries of
Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Again from GM’s annual report:
“We will continue to grow our business under the Baojin, Jiefang, and Wuling brands.
We operate in Chinese markets through a number of joint ventures and maintaining good
relations with our joint venture partners, which are affiliated with the Chinese
government, is an important part of our Chinese growth strategy.”
Seems like a good match: U.S. Government Motors with China’s “national champions.”
Well, Obama likes government-private partnerships. Our GM is now in cahoots with the
titans of the Chinese Communist Party.
GM has the other BRICS covered as well: “We are increasingly well-positioned in
Russia, Brazil and India with a $1 billion investment in Russia to turn out a quarter
million vehicles by 2015. GM also touts an almost three billion dollars of
investment in Brazil “to increase its capacity and modernize plants in the country.”
Not all these investments have turned out well. GM is shutting down in Hugo Chavez’s
Venezuela. GM should be warned about doing business in Russia. Putin has a nasty
habit of taking over foreign operations when they are on the verge of success.
GM and Boeing are America’s two largest heavy manufacturers. Boeing employs about
25,000 fewer workers worldwide than GM. But Boeing’s investments, unlike GM’s, happen
to be at home. A prime example is the $2 billion Boeing invested in a South Carolina
plant, which created 3,800 new jobs. It turns out that Boeing’s $2 billion investment
went to a right-to-work state. Forget the jobs. Obama’s union supporters raised
Cain, and his NLRB blackmailed Boeing into submission as a condition to open the plant.
But perhaps Boeing deserved this harsh treatment as one of Romney’s “pioneers of
outsourcing,” to use Obama’s words. No. It turns out that virtually all of Boeing’s
employees work in the United States. Boeing does not outsource. GM does and in a big
way.
GM got a huge tax break from its Obama-directed bankruptcy. Unlike other corporations
that routinely lose their cumulated tax write-offs in bankruptcy proceedings, the new
GM will not have to pay federal taxes for the next decade or so. Quite a gift from
the Obama car czar in addition to having its bond holders wiped out. What? America’s
showcase of corporate virtue is a legal tax scofflaw, like Big Oil, Big Pharma, and
Big Wall Street!
Let’s remember Obama’s words at his Colorado rally: “Let’s give tax breaks to
companies that are investing here. It’s the right thing to do.” I guess Obama needs
to revoke GM’s free pass on taxes and make sure all its bailout money is repaid. It
would not be good for the campaign if word got out that TARP and other federal money
ended up in Mexico, Brazil, or Russia.
Along with the overwhelming majority of economists, I favor the free flow of goods,
services and capital across national boundaries. Outsourcing is a natural part of the
global economy. Populist cries against outsourcing represent the equivalent of
political trash talk. However, if Obama harps on vague charges against Bain Capital,
what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
But there is a useful point to the GM-Boeing comparison: GM outsourcing is
explained, among other things, by $85 per hour UAW wages and benefits, inefficient
work rules, controls on corporate compensation, and government dictates of the
product mix. Boeing keeps its high-paying manufacturing jobs here because it can
still organize its production at lower cost at home than abroad. We “make in
America,” when we have the economic freedom to do so.
That is a lesson Obama has yet to learn.
Paul Roderick Gregory
http://www.forbes.com/
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General Motors has big plans for China. More dealers. More factories. And even
strange-looking new models.
It plans to open 600 dealerships in China this year and nearly double the number of
cars it builds in China by 2016, with plans to introduce a new Cadillac each year for
several years, according to GM executives. It even intends to build an updated
version of the EN-V pod-car that it showed in Shanghai a couple of years ago.
It started selling the Chevrolet Volt in China last month, a move that provides a way
to gauge the Chinese market's acceptance of electric cars, GM CEO Dan Akerson said.
As in the U.S., plug-in vehicles have been slow to catch on.
The dealer expansion will bring the number of GM dealerships in the world's largest
auto market to 3,500, compared with about 4,400 selling its vehicles in the U.S. For
two straight years, GM has sold more vehicles in China than in the U.S.
Last year, GM and its partners sold 2.55 million cars and trucks in China. GM plans
to boost its production capacity there to 5 million cars a year by 2016. "We
fundamentally believe in the strength of the Chinese market," Akerson said.
Cadillac intends to more than triple its sales in China, from 30,000 last year to
100,000 by 2016, said Joseph Liu, executive vice president of GM China. This year's
new product will be the XTS sedan that GM will produce in China.
Asked whether GM would set up a dedicated Chinese factory to produce Cadillacs,
rather than sharing production with other GM models, Akerson said:
"Yes." But he gave no details.
The Chinese government has set a goal of getting 500,000 all-electric and plug-in
hybrid cars on the roads by 2015, but consumers and government agencies have not been
buying many.
As of the end of 2011, many cities had fewer than 100 electric or plug-in hybrid
vehicles, and there have been few plans put forth to increase purchases, according to
Yale Zhang, managing director for Automotive Foresight Shanghai.
"Though some people in China may want to buy electric vehicles, residents in only six
cities can get central government subsidies under the government's demo project,"
Zhang wrote recently in the China Daily newspaper. "They are Changchun, Beijing,
Hefei, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen."
Kevin Wale, president of the GM China Group, called the EN-V 2.0 "a more practical
design" with climate control and some storage space.
He said the two-passenger pod will be used in pilot projects in China to gauge
reaction to the electric vehicle with wireless Internet connections for
entertainment, navigation and other services.
EN-V stands for Electric Networked Vehicle. It has a modular architecture so the
technology can be incorporated into future vehicles, Wale said.
Contributing: Didi Tang of the Associated Press
By Alisa Priddle, USA TODAY and the Detroit Free Press
http://content.usatoday.com/
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Sounds like they are using our tax money to invest in China.
Why don't they build them in the states and ship them to China.
Paul Lamar
I'll bet it has a lot to do with $85/hr UAW workers.
Mark LaPierre
Mark, $85hr autoworkers don't exist any more, but don't let facts interfere with your
beliefs.
C. Smith
He got the number transposed. It is only $58 an hour.
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/10/12/$58-an-hour_uaw_workers_kill_$16k_ford_bonus_as_stingy/page/full/
http://tinyurl.com/6ejp7np
Paul Lamar
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