Welcome to the low-cost manufacturing paradise that is the United States

From today’s WSJ:

For years the U.S. has been one of the most expensive places in the world to make cars. But the new contracts with the United Auto Workers union signed last fall significantly improve the global competitive position of Big Three plants. The weaker dollar, which makes production in the U.S. less expensive, is also helping to turn the economics of domestic production upside down.

… Detroit’s improved competitive position has sparked concern among foreign manufacturers, which do not use unionized U.S. workers. Toyota Motor Corp. is now pushing to lower labor costs in the U.S., say people familiar with the matter.

Later this year, GM will begin shipping the Buick Enclave, a seven-passenger crossover sport-utility vehicle made in Lansing, Mich., to China, where the Buick brand is a big seller. GM hopes eventually to export as many as 25,000 Enclaves a year to China, said Dee Allen, a GM spokesman. …

Okay, so maybe we can’t devalue our way to prosperity. But it sure looks like we can devalue our way to an export revival.

Apple CEO Cook Gives Up $75M in Stock Dividends

NEW YORK — Apple CEO Tim Cook is giving up $75 million in dividends on restricted stock that the company is awarding to all of its employees.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Apple Inc. said that Cook requested that his restricted stock units not receive dividends. The dividends that Apple workers are getting amount to $2.65 per quarter for each restricted stock unit held. The shares are not normally eligible to receive dividends, so Apple’s decision is a perk for its employees.

kumar

“India forever doesnt have domain knowledge people” as commented by General Electric head in a TV(may be NDTV or CNBC) interview, he also said they are suitable for doing sevice type of work,non critical work (including IIT’s and Techncial graduates), what will happen to Honeywells aviation machines if they put substandard code or design in avionics???
There has been lots of competition from India and western countries are losing their business like satellite launching, avation, other high end technologies, this will put West out of money and there will be no furthur progress….
kumar

“India for ever doesnt have domain knowledge people” as commented by General Electric head in a TV(may be NDTV or CNBC) interview, he also said they are suitable for doing sevice type of work non critical work( including IIT and technical graduates), what will happen to Honeywells aviation machines if they put substandard code or design in avionics???

There has been lots of competition from India and western countries are losing their business like satellite launching, avation, other high end technologies, this will put West out of money and there will be no furthur progress, technical development was done by westerners from 19th century onwards, when asians come into picture therewill be lots of negative progress.
saraboo

It occurs to me that there is only one American job that hasn’t been outsourced thus far. A job that could save billions every year and may be better served by other than American citizens. It’s a job that is limited in scope yet commands tremendous resources in our society as well as power and money.

It has also proven itself to be more than many Americans in these jobs have been able to handle with any true alacrity or success. Yet, even with the dismal showings of many of the Americans doing this work, we continue to pay the highest wages to the poorest performers. Further, we contradictorily compensate them grandly when they are infrequently fired, rather then sending them on their way with a boot.

In other societies, most notably Japanese, but Korean, and even Chinese as well, these same jobs are held by people making far, far less in compensation while proving far, far more astute in performance.
Unlike their American counterparts, these foreign workers seem less enamored with fame and fortune, power and glory and more interested in creating products that please and corporations that thrive. In turn, their societies benefit rather than polarize. Their people are happier to contribute and their products are of better quality. There is even the lack of unionization within the labor force because compensation is fairer across the board and the jobs in question are not so aristocratically compensated. Consequently, when the need comes to tighten belts, general labor is not so strikingly penalized through downsizing and demands for lower wages.

The jobs in question, of course, are the CEO positions so coveted by our America’s elite. There is a vast pool of not only competent, but educated, savvy, smart, and shrewd foreign executives who would be thrilled to lead our corporate and manufacturing sector to greater advantage in world markets. And they would do so for far less in compensation than the lowest paid American CEOs now command.

So let’s stop concentrating on downsizing our workforce and let’s start thinking about upgrading our leadership with eager foreign talent that will do the work for what it is truly worth and not what they can wring out of American industry. Buy American, but hire foreign CEOs!
Justin Fox

Actually, there are now href=”http://www.slate.com/id/2172346/”>tons of foreign-born CEOs of big U.S. companies. They just don’t get paid any less than the American-born ones.