Thread: American Big Business Mentality..A Must Read!

I got this in an email today. It's a little off the immigration topic, but read the last several sentences and the irony of moving jobs out of the US.

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a
consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering
the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor
performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and
canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was
distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sad, but oh so true . Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US

The last quarter's results:

Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

So tell us again why it is good to move American jobs overseas?

This is true. We used to manufacture so many more goods in this country and have such pride in our work.
We have Toyotas and there are a few family members who say we are unpatriotic for having them. They tell us to "get off of our high horse" because we are very Pro-American but we have Toyotas. First of all, in my opinion, they are better cars. Second, both of our Toyotas were made in USA which means we are providing American jobs.

These same family members have no problem buying everything at Walmart where practically everything is made in other countries like China, however. Now I do know that it is hard to find very many products made here anymore, but their hyprocracy drives me crazy.

Thanks Sippy. Yes indeed, oh so true.

But, wait, 'that's not all'...

Among the list of PROFITABLE other non-US auto manufacturers with production done in the US...

Mercedes-Benz,
BMW,
Subaru,
Hyundai,
(etc)...

Hmmmmm, do we see a pattern here?

Got a new Toyota Avalon last June...............best car I've ever owned! I had been mostly a GM customer all my life. Owned one Ford.

I remember quite a few years back, during a strike at one of the big 3 (as they were called at the time), a woman on TV being interviewed about the strike.

She said, "I only make $17/hr and my husband makes $17/hr. We can't live on that kind of money!"

I have NEVER forgotten it. Thirty-four dollars an hour between them......and they couldn't live on it! And remember, this was YEARS ago.