[Cid_Yama]

This rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?

- George Bailey, <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i>

[RdSnt]

Did you read the whole thing, or only the first couple of sentences?
Do you really thnk a couple making $50,000 a year should be living in a $485,000 house?
Free enterprise created these situations.
Do you really think a forklift driver working for the "big 3" is worth $85,000 a year?
You mean the guy that worked for 30 years to get that level of pay? Which means his wages kind of kept up with inflation?

Do you really think there are a lot of houses in florida worth $750,000?
Again, free enterprise provided the unfettered explosion in prices.

That people that jump the border deserve free health care, while folks like me, who have worked all their lives, and are now unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control, have none?
You have the same access to public health as any illegal immigrant. Better yet, you could be working just like them. You are against union labour, so you should be quite happy working along side the wetbacks.
That wally-world can stock their shelves with "s--t" from china and profit from it?
Then stop buying at Walmart.

[TWilliam]

BRILLIANT.

When I first began working as an auto mechanic back in the early 80s, I started out at a GM dealership. One of the first tasks you usually learn in a dealership shop is a 'Pre-Delivery Inspection' of vehicles newly arrived from the manufacturing facility, which included things like removing dust covering from upholstery, making sure all the lights and switches functioned, checking fluid levels and tire pressure, etc.

I was absolutely appalled by the evidence I saw in virtually EVERY truckload of vehicles that hit the lot of either apparent ineptitude, disinterest in, or outright hostility toward delivering a quality product. Misaligned doors, trunks and hoods; sh!tty paint jobs including primer showing through at times; clamps, fasteners, covers, trim etc. either missing or unsecured; deliberate sabotage such as beer bottles or tools inside doors or body panels (people hate rattles in new cars), or purposefully shorted wiring. To this day I still remember one electrical issue that gave one of the techs fits for a couple of days. Eventually his troubleshooting lead him into pulling down the steering column, and scratched into the paint on the inside of one of the column anchor brackets were the words "What the f`ck are you looking here for?" (I kid you not.) The problem was eventually tracked down to a pair of crossed wires under the passenger side dashboard.

I also got to know one of the lead techs pretty well, and he told me stories about touring the plants up in Michigan when he was sent there for continuing training, about meeting a lot of the UAW folks. He said they were mostly a bunch of alcoholics and junkies. Said he saw people more than once shooting up while on breaks or drinking on the line.

I won't even get into the crappy engineering and sh*t quality materials I saw first hand on a daily basis while working on vehicles. I left after about three months, went to work for a Toyota dealership and never looked back. They do Pre-delivery Inspections too, and in ten years with them I never once saw ANY of that kind of crap with their vehicles.

People wonder why the Japs have kicked our @sses in automotive for 30 years. I don't wonder, at all. I know why. And the really sad thing? We taught them how...

[TWilliam]

Free enterprise created these situations.

No, it did not. Greed and dishonesty, coupled with a deck stacked to encourage both, is what created them. That is the antithesis of free enterprise.

[Concerned]

This rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?

- George Bailey, <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i>

Did you read the whole thing, or only the first couple of sentences?
Do you really thnk a couple making $50,000 a year should be living in a $485,000 house?
Do you really think a forklift driver working for the "big 3" is worth $85,000 a year?

Worth closer to $85000 than what the bankers and brokers are paying themselves for nothing but speculation.

Are bankers that destroy companies really worth 20-40 or more million to pat goodbye on the back?
Do you really think a project manager is worth $250,000 per year?
Do you really think someone working in a Chinese iPod or Nike factory is only worth $2 per day??

Do you really think there are a lot of houses in florida worth $750,000?

Instead of looking at a mere number it would be best served to see how much the average wage is compared to living expenses, food, taxes, clothing etc..

That people that jump the border deserve free health care, while folks like me, who have worked all their lives, and are now unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control, have none?

Why do you have none? A good Capitalist should have some capital saved certainly enough to see out at MINIMUM 12months if not 18 to 24 months. On a trimmed budget e.g. no eating out, no holidays, cut cell phone use, cut cable tv, no more movies, no more dvd rental. You know CLAMP down.

YOU'RE the PROBLEM. You bash UNIONS that distribute a few breadcrumbs to workers, barely raise any WHISPER about welfare and largess for the RICH 8.5 Trillion in bailout money about 2.5 Trillion used so far, yet you do NOTHING for yourself when you are employed.

That wally-world can stock their shelves with "s--t" from china and profit from it?

Go to your home and take a good stock of what is on YOUR SHELVES from China.

Any fool can sack American workers earning $800 per week and make money paying a peasant $14 per week on Labor arbitrage. And keep the whole scheme running by loaning Americans easy money on the hope one day they can pay it off...

Please WAKE UP!!!

I suggset you read it again, especially the response from Gregory Knox, PRESIDENT of KNOX MACHINERY, which supples the auto industry.

Were you barking so loudly when your banking masters we getting bailed out?

They have their union and special interest groups with direct access to power.

Their wages are far in excess of $85,000 yet they produce nothing save a few keystrokes to in debt workers for their entire work life.

[Concerned]

Free enterprise created these situations.

No, it did not. Greed and dishonesty, coupled with a deck stacked to encourage both, is what created them. That is the antithesis of free enterprise.

Hahaha. Free enterprise aka "the Market" is Greed and dishonesty. Greed is good don't you remember.

Your idealistic notion of and Adam Smith style free enterprise and the transparency of a real market e.g. a small town with a baker, butcher, tanner, smith, farmer et el.. is a far cry from the free enterprise that has seen the top 400 households hold more capital than the bottom 150 million households in America.

But please hang on to your delusions into the "poor house" and beyond. Sheep like you were born to be fleeced

[TWilliam]

Hahaha. Free enterprise aka "the Market" is Greed and dishonesty. Greed is good don't you remember.

Your idealistic notion of and Adam Smith style free enterprise and the transparency of a real market e.g. a small town with a baker, butcher, tanner, smith, farmer et el.. is a far cry from the free enterprise that has seen the top 400 households hold more capital than the bottom 150 million households in America.

But please hang on to your delusions into the "poor house" and beyond. Sheep like you were born to be fleeced

Apparently you missed the fact that what we today term 'free enterprise', ISN'T. That was my point. But by all means, fee free to hang on to your delusions that it is. "War is peace; slavery is freedom" and all that. Saying it enough times makes it so, right?

[MD]

Reality check: bubble burst.

I happen to know Greg Knox personally. He lets loose a nice rant, but you have to understand that he is just a machine tool salesman. His company manufactures nothing. This is the equivalent of your local car dealership owner getting pissy about not selling any cars.

His dealership is located just south of Dayton Ohio, which is currently reeling over the permanent closure of a General Motors assembly plant and the loss of all associated supplier jobs (and machine tool sales).

He's a reasonably sharp guy as demonstrated by his reasonably articulate rant, but that's all it is, just a rant.

[bratticus]

Working link

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp

[MD]

Working link

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp

Cool. I see Greg called it a "spleen vent". Nice term!

[bratticus]

This thing is pathetic.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp

Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them?
The K car vs. the Accord?
The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?
Do I need to go on?

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades.

Time to pay for your sins, Detroit.

Time to pay for your sins?
Gregory Knoxs has totally failed to address what those sins were.
We could only wish that the sins were the failure to build more fabulous cars.
We have sinned against life itself.

[flash width=425 height=344]http://www.youtube.com/v/GU4F_fVjUq8[/flash]

[AlexdeLarge]

Interesting find. Gotta love what Gregory Knox has to say to Troy Clarke of G.M.!

Story below verified by

www.snopes.com...
THIS IS A MUST READ

Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors
- followed by a response from Gregory Knox, President of Knox Machinery,a
manufacturer of precision machine tools which supplies the auto industry.

+ 1000

Someone who gets it. Gregory Knox is the kind of leader we need in Washington!!

Oh, but wait....he is not cool and tells the truth. Next.....................

[Rasputin]

I hate the word "FREE"

FREE health care
FREE enterprise
etc,
etc,
etc.........


Nothing on this orb is free, ever.

[Concerned]

I hate the word "FREE"

FREE health care
FREE enterprise
etc,
etc,
etc.........


Nothing on this orb is free, ever.

Are you paying to use this web site?

Did the railroad Barron's pay for thousands of acres of land across America?

Do bankers get to create money and charge interest on it with a keystroke?

Do you pay your children to laugh and smile?

See much in life if free...

[hironegro]

Did you read the whole thing, or only the first couple of sentences?
Do you really thnk a couple making $50,000 a year should be living in a $485,000 house?
Do you really think a forklift driver working for the "big 3" is worth $85,000 a year?
Do you really think there are a lot of houses in florida worth $750,000?
That people that jump the border deserve free health care, while folks like me, who have worked all their lives, and are now unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control, have none?
That wally-world can stock their shelves with "s--t" from china and profit from it?

I suggset you read it again, especially the response from Gregory Knox, PRESIDENT of KNOX MACHINERY, which supples the auto industry.

Yes, because people who work at LBO's and Hedge funds bring much more intrinsic value to this world!

[mos6507]

Yes, because people who work at LBO's and Hedge funds bring much more intrinsic value to this world!

And a lot of them are baby boomers to boot! The horror!

[Sixstrings]

People wonder why the Japs have kicked our @sses in automotive for 30 years. I don't wonder, at all. I know why. And the really sad thing? We taught them how...

Yeah, this is the perennial balance of power between union and management at work. Without a union, most companies do take advantage of their employees. With a union, over time, the advantage taking shifts and it's workers who drag the company down.

I wonder, do they have unions in Japan? We really should study just *how* the Japanese, Germans etc. do what they do.

Hopefully it's not a culture problem, cuz then we're screwed.

[Tanada]

People wonder why the Japs have kicked our @sses in automotive for 30 years. I don't wonder, at all. I know why. And the really sad thing? We taught them how...

Yeah, this is the perennial balance of power between union and management at work. Without a union, most companies do take advantage of their employees. With a union, over time, the advantage taking shifts and it's workers who drag the company down.

I wonder, do they have unions in Japan? We really should study just *how* the Japanese, Germans etc. do what they do.

Hopefully it's not a culture problem, cuz then we're screwed.

Its cultural. In Japan, right up until about 1985 companies were very careful about who they hired because once they hired you it was very unlikely they would ever fire you. The relationship was almost fuedal in nature, the Company paid you and in turn you gave your Loyalty to the company. If you were a good worker this system worked great, you would always have a job as long as the company existed and the company would have a good happy work force. If however you turned out to be a scew up, poor job preformance, bad for moral or things of that nature you were a burden on the company because they wouldn't fire you. Many times you would get transferred around from department to deartment until you were someplace you didn't drag down the production, but you still had a job. If an executive screwed up sometimes they would be assigned an office space and desk, with access to a secretary, but no defined duties. As long as they showed up for work they kept getting a check, but all they could do was sit there and stare out the window all day.

The above comes from extensive reading and long conversations with a blood relative who spent time in Japan being given Kaizan training which was all the rage back in the 1980's and 1990's while working for a Japanese industrial parts supplier in the USA.

[Rasputin]

I hate the word "FREE"

FREE health care
FREE enterprise
etc,
etc,
etc.........


Nothing on this orb is free, ever.

Are you paying to use this web site?

Did the railroad Barron's pay for thousands of acres of land across America?

Do bankers get to create money and charge interest on it with a keystroke?

Do you pay your children to laugh and smile?

See much in life if free...

Read your SIG again. Thats just another way of saying that eventually the books will balance.

I get angry when I hear people say free health care. How in anyones wildest imagination can they think that it's free?

Everyone pays there way eventually whether they are ignorant of it or not. And yes sometimes it's when the king goes back in the box that he settles up.

Nothing is free, ever.

[sittinguy]

That was an AWSOME RANT!!

I live in Florida, not many unions here, But I do think they are BS. The unions protect a bunch of underskilled workers, there are PLENTY of smart skilled workers, but also PLENTY of crack heads that get the same benifits.

I know alot of people that have moved down here and live off their pensions..

What the hell is a pension?? If you don't do a 401k down here all you get is a boot in the ass after 20 years.