In reply to Jones Beene's message of Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:07:41 -0800 (PST): Hi, [snip] >Robin, > >Although I agree in principle that the USA has exported way too many jobs- >most of them have been in industries where we were not competitive anyway... >(except for automotive) this site is an eye-opener. > >http://www.taurillon.org/Europe-vs-USA-Whose-Economy-Wins
This was written 2 years ago. > >It makes this claim: > >"The main reason the US is richer is, first of all, because a higher >proportion of Americans are in employment and, secondly, they work about 20% >more hours per year than Europeans." ...it also points out that this is just a perception. IOW the reason US workers work longer hours is that they have to in order to make ends meet. (As a child I used to think this was "ends meat", and could never figure out what that was ;) > >If America were even halfway competitive with Germany and Japan in automotive >- and nothing else - only in that one industry - we would not be in this >terrible predicament. > >This can change. Our problem in automotive is not with labor - it is with poor >- ultrapoor - management. > >This is the big argument to let GM and Chrysler fail... I agree, they should...which would result in the sales of the other automakers increasing, and they in turn would absorb some of the works retrenched by those that failed. > >... but following that to insist - pretty much force Toyota and BMW etc, the >companies that do have good management - to build the cars in the USA. The tax >code can do this. Toyota has said repeatedly that their BEST factories for >both quality and output are in the USA. They need little enticement. [snip] The article you site above concludes:- "The truth is that neither side wins in this beauty contest. Europe merely does less badly than the USA in some crucial respects. Yes, while it is true that the core Eurozone countries could perform far better, Germany, France and Italy have quite different problems in comparison both to the US and to each other which require quite different solutions. Anybody who claims that the US provides a model which the EU should copy needs to consider the basic economic facts of the case." Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
