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You should consider it. You may make more than your part time job pays. The last two years of high school I mowed lawns. I carried the mower in my trunk with the lid tied down. When I went to work after high school for Pacific Telephone I took a BIG pay cut. I still did my best customers on Saturday. I often wonder where I would be now if I had stayed in that business. Probably have a couple hundred illegals working for me.. :shades:
PS
You will be hard pressed here in CA getting an illegal to work for less than $10 per hour. I pay $12 to a fellow that lives in TJ and drives up here to work. He works one day a week for most of the neighbors. He does yard work, plumbing, concrete or carpenter work. Very dependable. He has an H2B work permit.
There is an endless stable of them for any business start up you can think of. Just pull up in your UAW-built SUV and pick 'em up every day! These people have the desire...illegal or not. They make more than the minimum wage WITHOUT UNION DUES and no medical premiums as far as they eye can see. They work hard for the money...
If you watch them work, they are quite professional. Where are today's kids again??
Regards,
OW
You have hit the nail on the head. I have offered work to all the unemployed nephews. It is difficult getting them to work on time and work for 8 hours is more than they can handle. Todays teens in general are a lost generation... There is a family in our church with 5 great boys. They have worked for me from time to time. As they turn 18 someone grabs them up for good jobs. Two have gone full time into construction and one just got accepted into some program with the sheriffs dept. So hard to find good legal help here at any price.
A couple of more years and no kid will even know what a paper route is, and they'll wonder why you wouldn't want the news delivered on demand to your PC screen anyway. They'll be busy programming and fixing the robots that build cars.
Something tells me that IT workers have unions they can join too.
Regards,
OW
Somebody once wrote into the Atlanta paper that the panhandlers (that's beggars) in the streets were chasing away tourists (duh!) but that nobody ever saw a Hispanic panhandler, as they were all out working...
Maybe for every illegal we keep, we can send Mexico one or two of our welfare recipients...even swap, no charge...
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
History of the implementation
NAFTA was initially pursued by politicians in the United States and Canada supportive of free trade, led by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and the Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The three countries signed NAFTA in December 1992, subject to ratification by the legislatures of the three countries. There was considerable opposition in all three countries. In the United States, NAFTA was able to secure passage after Bill Clinton made its passage a major legislative priority in 1993. Since the agreement had been signed by Bush under his fast-track prerogative, Clinton did not alter the original agreement, but complemented it with the aforementioned NAAEC and NAALC. After intense political debate and the negotiation of these side agreements, the U.S. House of Representatives passed NAFTA on November 17, 1993, by 234-200 vote (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 43 Republicans, 156 Democrats, and 1 independent against),[7] and the U.S. Senate passed it on the last day of its 1993 session, November 20, 1993, by 61-38 vote (34 Republicans and 27 Democrats voting in favor; 10 Republicans and 28 Democrats against, with 1 Democrat opponent not voting -- Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), an ardent foe of NAFTA, missed the vote because of an illness in his family).[8]
SANCTIONS OF JAPAN: THE OVERVIEW; 100% TARIFFS SET ON 13 TOP MODELS OF JAPANESE CARS
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: May 17, 1995
Living up to its threat to impose harsh sanctions on Japan, the Clinton Administration placed a 100 percent tariff today on 13 luxury car models that accounted for $5.9 billion in sales in the United States last year, including the flagship products of Toyota, Nissan and Honda.
The tariff, the largest ever imposed by the United States against any trading partner, is to go into effect at 12:01 Saturday morning. Customs inspectors will be instructed to double the wholesale price of every Toyota Lexus, Nissan Infiniti and a number of other cars that roll off Japanese transport ships -- an increase that would make the cars all but unsalable.
But Administration officials said the sanctions would be rescinded if Japan and the United States could reach an accord by June 28, giving the two countries six weeks to resolve a dispute that has already gone far beyond the immediate issue of the openness of Japan's market for American cars and car parts.
As the argument has broadened tremendously in recent weeks, both sides have warned that the alliance of the world's two largest economies is being badly corroded.
"We've put ourselves pretty far out on this one, and there is no backing away now," one of Mr. Clinton's top trade officials said today. "We came to the conclusion that either we draw the line here, or throw in the towel on Japan."
Japanese officials contended today that the sanctions violated international trade laws, and said that within days they would bring an action against the United States at the new and still-fragile World Trade Organization in Geneva.
In Tokyo, Ryutaro Hashimoto, the Minister of International Trade and Industry, whose prospects of becoming prime minister are resting largely on his handling of the trade dispute, accused Washington of imposing "numerical targets" that Japan must meet "under the threat of unilateral actions, which is nothing but Government intervention in private business activities, and poses a serious challenge to the free trade system."
Japanese auto makers were more direct. "The U.S. Government conducts its trade policy in a coercive manner completely beyond our comprehension," said the executive vice president of the Toyota Motor Company, Masaharu Tanaka.
In private, Japanese Government officials contended that Mr. Clinton was simply playing Presidential politics, trying to shore up his support among labor unions and middle-class voters who see their jobs threatened by Japan's long reach into the American market.
But American officials say that for the first time they have found a way to hit Japan where it hurts -- and when it hurts most, with the strong yen already ravaging Japanese profits. It is unclear how long Japan's auto makers could endure the huge loss of sales that would come from a tariff that would add $20,000 to $40,000 to the cost of each car. After years of battling their way into the American luxury market, they would suddenly be surrendering it to Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar and some competitive American models.
"The U.S. is not going to stand by and watch its workers and its products unfairly treated," said Mickey Kantor, the United States trade representative, who has led the drive to be far tougher with Japan than any past administration has. Among American workers, he said, "very, very few people will be hurt."
In fact, the list Mr. Kantor announced today was more a political masterpiece than an economic one. All the cars on the list are produced in Japan, and they all make minimal use of American parts; no vehicles made at Japanese "transplants" in the United States are affected. All of the cars involved cost more than $25,000, enabling Mr. Clinton to argue that he has punished Japan without hurting middle-class American consumers. As one of Mr. Clinton's political advisers said in half-jest the other day, "So we lose the Lexus vote in Greenwich."
There are several possibilities for what could happen next. The simplest is that Japanese officials, concluding that they have misread Mr. Clinton's determination, try to patch together the minimal concessions necessary to resolve matters before the June 28 deadline. Presumably, most of the talking would take place before Mr. Clinton and Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama meet at the conference of the Group of Seven nations in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which begins on June 15. But several Administration officials warned today that they expected the two leaders' meeting to be inconclusive and said they doubted that Japan's Government would resolve internal disputes fast enough to act before the deadline.
The second possibility is that no agreement will be reached until Japanese auto makers feel enough pain to press the politicians to solve the problem.
con't.........
A third -- and probably less likely -- possibility is that Japan will decide to tough it out, for fear that caving in on autos would lead to similar pressure regarding other industries. Japanese officials could calculate that such a move would ultimately cost them less and would give them a chance to argue that the sanctions are a violation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Many American experts on trade law say Japan could win such an argument, although Mr. Kantor insists that the United States is within its rights to act unilaterally against Japanese imports. He contends that Section 301 of the Trade Act grants broad powers to retaliate after concluding that a trading partner is discriminating against American imports. Still, he may not want to test that proposition before a neutral panel in Geneva.
Today the Director General of the World Trade Organization, Renato Ruggiero, made what some trade experts saw as a veiled warning to the United States. Mr. Ruggiero, whose appointment the United States opposed for more than a year before reluctantly endorsing him, said, "I expect both parties to abide by the W.T.O. rules and procedures, which they know well."
In public the Administration has maintained a solid front on the trade issue, trying to send Japan the message that it must make progress on the economic issues if it wants to make sure there is no damage to the political ties, and ultimately the security ties, between the countries. But several Administration officials say there are signs of growing internal tension over the issue. Mr. Kantor has called for a full-court press, several White House officials say, while Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the new head of the National Economic Council, has been trying to temper the public oratory to prevent an already nasty argument from getting uglier.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE4DA1738F934A25756C0A96395826- - 0
Your republican elected leaders called Bill Clinton, a communist, socialist, etc, etc, when he implemented this !!! He later unfortunately backed down from enforcing this tariff which is why we have un free trade today with the Japanese. They still manipulate their currency and have trade barriers designed to keep low cost competitive imports out !!! I know some will say the Japanese, won't buy our stuff any ways because they are nationalistic but it's the "principle" which matters to me !!!!
-Rocky
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
"Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove is threatening to strike GM if they go through with plans to close the Oshawa, Ont., pickup truck assembly plant."
Hargrove threatening to strike GM (Straightline)
Regards,
OW
You have to understand, GM makes money off their pickups and SUVs not their cars. In order to make money on their cars and keep up the quality with Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc., they have to reduce costs. The best way of doing this is cheaper labor.
and with the euro costing $1.50-$1.60, they get "cheaper" labor right here. I won't dispute the fact that the Astra that is offered by Saturn is unremarkable, as it is, and also expensive. My point is that if they make 250,000 here, even if they only sell 50,000 as Saturns, the others can go to England, Austrailia, and Europe. With the dollar as weak as it is, they are studying if it is feaseable to do it here and ship them elsewhere cheaper than they could be made overseas.
GM is not worried about saving jobs. They have to figure a way to become profitable in the North American market. GM makes money in all their other markets but have lost focus here in the US. Building more Astras here does nothing to solve their problems.
Regards,
OW
I don't see any signs yet.
I'm not an economist or financial wizard but I do believe our economy goes in cycles. Given the fact that the US has the deepest, most diverse economy on the planet, I see this downturn as short lived. It may take the dollar a couple of years to bounce back I'm a believer that this downturn in the economy is short lived as long as the politicians stay out of the way.
A few years ago both Ford and GM faced questions about whether filing for bankruptcy protection was a real possibility, but such speculation is now revving up again. It comes just months after the auto makers signed new union contracts that are expected to bring Detroit's labor costs in line with those of their Japanese rivals. But the sharp rise in gas prices this year has hit the Big Three hardest because of their heavy reliance on trucks for most of their sales and profits.
"Their wiggle room right now is almost nonexistent," said Tad Howard, president of financial consulting firm Nassau Financial LLC in Potomac, Md. "I think it's a hopeless situation short of two things -- a government bailout or additional cooperation from the [United Auto Workers union]. So in some ways, bankruptcy may be an attractive alternative.
How far is bankruptcy? Either that or a merger/takeover.
This one make for one fantastic screen play...like the Battle of the Bulge or the Titanic! History repeats itself for the unconscious business leaders!
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
But yeah, the politicos only make it worse. Another rate cut will do nothing but dig a deeper hole.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/saturn-to-add-opel-astra-production-to-ruesselsheim-- plant.html
As you'll see, the picture shows people standing in front of the 10 millionth Astra built, and the article references it's popularity in Europe.
My point is "IF" they build it here for Saturn, and "IF" the dollar stays weak for more than a couple years, it may be feasible to utilize the workforce here to supplement European production.
Here's another article that is not painting a pretty picture for Ford or GM. At the center of it is the declining auto sales.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/19/news/companies/taylor_gm.fortune/index.htm?postv- - ersion=2008061910
If they build in Canada as the article says they might, they have a factory and workforce that has always ranked high in productivity. If they build in Mexico they save more on labor and add new consumers to the market. The UAW just recently proved they would strike one of the few plants building popular vehicles. Why take that chance with the Astra? If the UAW had a legitimate reason to strike why did they pick one of the few models that GM is selling? My take is they DO NOT care about the future of GM.
...or their own jobs.
All 100 of them that are left will be well paid.
But, considering the IQ of the average member is between 70-80, none of this surprises me...they act like idiots because, well...they are...
If you think they'd be put on suicide watch, then that lends to the dire nature of the industry, as it concerns them. Personally, locals aside, I think the next 2 or 3 yrs. are going to be VERY tenuous, with As*h&%#s puckered on both sides of the equation. Even at the non-union plants, when layoffs start rolling in because we just aren't buying cars (they are saying 12.5 mil this yr, a 25% drop) everyone is going to find themselves miserable.
Do not question whether their IQ is above 70-80, question how far below it can go before even the UAW will not accept them for employment...it is what it is...
And Toyota's newest factory is under construction in Blue Springs MS.
Ford and GM stocks are in the dumper (along with most everything else), and oil has popped $140 a bbl.
Looks like the plant closings are just going to continue.
Toledo Jeep workers to be laid off for 7 weeks
Ford starts another round of buyouts for local hourly workers
Final GM workers accepting buyout to leave Friday
On the less gloomy side:
St. Paul Ford plant may get reprieve (Ford Rangers are made there and they are relatively fuel-efficient).
and those who have studied political history.
My portfolio has been crushed over the past week or so. Just a couple of weeks ago I was up more then 13 percent for the year while the wider market was down almost that much. Now I am up only 3.33 percent so still beating the wider market considerably but much worse off then I was before. I have to sit down this weekend and figure out what I need to do to recover some of that lost ground.
I am wondering if I will have much left by this weekend. They say it is the worst June since 1930. That is not a good sign for any of us. The smart UAW guys are taking whatever buyout they are offered and heading out of Michigan.
Good opportunity for you to buy that Ford stock you wanted to buy during the last dip. :shades:
I screwed my self a couple of months ago by not getting out when I said I would and it cost me about seven percent in gains.
I have three stocks that are up over 20% year to date and one that is up almost 30% but those winners are barely enough to swallow my losses in UPS, UTX and BA.
I should have sold UTX or BA a while ago but I screwed up and held onto them. Now I gotta decide if I should dump them and take my lumps or try and ride it out.
Recently in Tucson I went to a hobby shop and spent 20 minutes or so looking hard for my '08 Mitsu Lancer GTS in "Revell plastic type" model form. One of the workers echoed my sentiment that its hard to find imports in these hobby shops. I would order one in a heartbeat on the net if I could find one.
Nevertheless, I put my Hot Wheel model Rally Red 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO on top of my computer monitor at home. Just in front of the 1965 Ford Mustang baby blue convertible metal model on there. They're constant reminders to me of my two favorite car body designs of all time. Even though I do slightly favor my '08 Lancer GTS over the '08 Lancer EVO body. Oh, yeah, models are so cool. :shades:
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Smart ones are far out numbered by dumb ones who are still holding on expecting Feds to bailout GM with tax payer dollars from filing C-11.
When the UAW went on strike this year at the Kansas Malibu plant and the Lansing crossover plant it would have been all out war if I was GM CEO. Those strikes were just retaliatory over the AA strike. The UAW members and leadership are so obsessed with their own importance that they cannot see the impending doom. By contrast Monterey MX is booming. Maybe the UAW should send a team down to see what their secret is. They have Unions also. Maybe it is the willingness to please the employer that is the secret to their success.
A short list of American companies doing business in greater Monterrey: McDonald's, General Motors, Caterpillar, Ford, Motorola, IBM, Emerson Electric, Du Pont, Dow Corning, PepsiCo, Wal-Mart, Union Carbide, and Stone Container. Other foreigners with operations in the area include Germany's BASF, Belgium's Bekaert Group, and Italy's Metecno.
"We have more visits these days from foreign companies eager to set up a joint venture," says Rafael R. Paez, president and chief executive officer of Grupo Industrial Alfa, a $2.5 billion steel, petrochemicals, and food conglomerate.
Ironically Mexicans from Monterey are coming up to TX and buying foreclosed properties. They have money to spend. The money our workers pushed South.
Where have all the UAW wages gone? Well some are coming back to the USA buying back TX.
Se Habla Espanol?
Texas Real Estate Slump Lets Mexicans Take It Back
June 25 (Bloomberg) -- More than a century and a half after Mexico lost Texas to the U.S., Virgilio Garza wants a piece of it back.
A ``Texas for Sale'' sign and cowgirls in boots and white hats greeted Garza at the Convex center in Monterrey, Mexico, earlier this month. A Monterrey developer and investor, Garza was in search of foreclosed U.S. property to buy.
``Texas is like our home,'' said Garza, 45, who joined hundreds of Mexicans poring over lists of Texas properties at the four-day event. Garza, who owns manufacturing sites and other land in Mexico, said he and five partners may invest as much as $8 million in Texas. ``We believe there can be some opportunities.''
A rising peso and an economy growing faster than the U.S. have given some Mexicans the buying power to take advantage of the housing slump in Texas, which the U.S. annexed in 1845 after Texans gained independence from Mexico nine years earlier. A three-year war followed and ended with Mexico ceding about half its territory, including Arizona, Nevada and California, to the U.S. under an 1848 treaty.
My trip to TX in 2006 was to look for real estate. Maybe another retirement home. Where we liked in the Hill Country was a bit over priced at the time. May be less now. The real down side for us was the property tax. It was between 2% and 2.5% of selling price. It was reappraised every couple years. Homes we would consider were cheap by San Diego standards. Nice brick one story 3k sq ft with an acre and view was right about $300k. The taxes on that place was over $7000 per year. We don't pay that much on a $650k home here. And they cannot raise it very much each year because of prop 13. So let the Mexicans have it. Rocky and I will live elsewhere..... :shades:
PS
There are good jobs there with the oil booming. A place that an unemployed UAW member could maintain his lifestyle if he has any usable skills.
Any UAW members out there on this board who have looked in to Uncle Sam paying for your re-training after you...gulp...get laid-off of your UAW job? I mean, let's look each other in the eye and realize something: the Japanese and South Koreans and dare I say, soon, the Chinese have eaten our proverbial lunch in automaking and selling.
As many of the hardcores here already know, I had a good-paying Boeing Co. job at the widebody jet plant in Everett, WA. Upon receiving my layoff notice I enrolled in Trade Act job re-training. We put our house up for sale, packed up the Sportage 4X4 and a recently-acquired 4 X 8' utility trailer, sold and gave away a lot of our stuff and moved to Missouri. The Fed.Guv-Mint paid for the books and tuition in full for me to get trained as a Certified Respiratory Therapist and earn an Associate's Degree in that field. Now, they didn't pay for the longer Registered Respiratory Therapist training but did fully fund the Certified Respiratory Therapist training program.
U.I. was paid for by the State we moved from, Washington. It worked out. Was it easy? Hell no it wasn't easy! When this layoff in the spring of 2003 occurred I was 20 years in to my Technical Illustrator-Engineering job for Boeing. I thought I was gonna retire at Boeing. This was a huge change, make no mistake about it.
But I am living testimony that one can go from building jet airplanes to helping people breathe. I would urge any of you lurking out there reading this to check with GM, Ford, Chrysler and who else about Fed.Aid for Retraining. I didn't see a wealth of other Graphics/Illustration jobs out there to shoot for, so I decided to just head in a completely different direction. Ya gotta admit, that's not a bad deal. U.I., if you keep a 'C' average or higher and all of the tuition and books paid. And there were a lot of books and a decent chunk of change that had to be laid down for this training.
Missouri is a hot and humid climate but it did rain a decent amount there, so I felt at home with that. I didn't like the humidity or the springtime threats of tornado's, but, we managed to avoid those, fortunately.
It did take me a long way from my family in the Puget Sound area and that was tough, and, feelings of homesickness and sadness over the passing away of my Pomeranian, Abbey, and my Dad from cancer(the dog in late June '04 and my Dad in Aug.'04) were immense to go through. That slowed me down for a while and I really had to buckle down and hit the books hard if I was gonna graduate.
Falling down the stairs of our rented townhome in December of '04(with our teacup Pomeranian, Rocky, in my left arm...stocking feet slipped on the carpeted upper few stairs, it happened so fast I couldn't believe it) and breaking my arm was also a setback. The Pom survived the accident just fine(I made sure he was gonna be fine and took the pressure of the fall down on my right arm and broke it in three places near the elbow!!), but, breaking my arm put me out of the hospital clinical rotation for a couple of months. My buddy lent me his Ford Crown V with automatic tranny, because I could not shift my '01 Kia Sportage's manual transmission with the right arm broken! He was a lifesaver that I had to have the help from or I would've had to drop out of school! I could attend regular Respiratory classes but couldn't do the clinical hospital training until my arm healed.
So, the arm healed, I graduated with the rest of my RT class in March of 2005, but had to attend class until early May of '05 in order to satisfy my clinical training requirements. My classmates voted me Most Persistent student, no kidding! Not the best student, mind you, just the Most Persistent.
That was too much work to put in, getting signed up for training, putting the house on the block, moving to the middle of the country to go to school, doing all of the required courses you have to take before you can even begin RT training, etc. Plus, I gotta be honest with ya, you have to look out for yourself at all times in order to get all of the red government tape taken care of. It was a part-time job getting all of the arrangments taken care of, to be honest. But I wanted it done. I was too young by at least 20 years to retire. So it was worked on incessantly. Setbacks did occur, but, after reading of them, do you feel like you can't retrain for another career?
No, of course, you can. Let's either get GM, Ford and Chrysler back to bigtime profitability or let's take our pink slips like adults and retrain. The Big 3 should have Trade Act programs or something like them available for you. The groundwork should already be laid right now on these programs. Check them out and I sincerely wish the best for you that will not make it in the automotive field any longer.
There are alternatives for retraining, then good employment out there in America. Healthcare is one of the big ones.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick