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Comments
Ask the people at the top. They are the "shareholders" investing their millions in companies and demanding unsustainable ROI's.
Well part of the problem is that the people at the top benefit from these booms and busts. Seriously, all you have to do is have some money invested risky, some money invested in low-risk things, and then rebalance periodically. When it looks like things are too good to be true, cash in some of your risky stuff, and then when the market drops, buy some of it back.
Of course, that's easier said than done. A lot of people can't do that, simply because in a recession they might lose their job, home equity, and half of their portfolio all in one fell swoop. And when you lose your job and need money to keep afloat, your only choice might be to cash in investments that have lost a lot of value.
I just don't see how folks can be persuaded to buy things they don't want (2 exceptions...time shares and UAW cars in the 60s and 70s when they were virtually, the only thing to buy, and one DOES need a car)...
I don't want an xBox and no amount of ads will change that...and I cannot see someone buying an xBox when they don't want it, regardless of advertising...now ads did help me buy an iPod, simply because advertising made me aware of it and I liked what it would do, carry 2000 of my favorite songs without commercials and poor reception...but still, I would not buy it if I had no desire to carry music with me...
Why did you buy an ipod over a much cheaper yet just as effective machine?
(You know Steve Jobs is a big Democrat, right?) :shades:
fwiw, we just got a new mattress that was made in the US. Still shopping those sneakers though.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Now, now, don't put dissenting thoughts into the masses...I want my Apple stock to keep going up! :P
And that advertising stuff does work. I might be getting a free Iphone because Apple came out with a new one, and a friend of mine just has to have it SOOOO bad because it's SOOOO much better and SOOOO much more gotta-have than the old Iphone.
Dunno if I'm gonna take him up on the offer though, because I don't know what it'll do to my monthly cell phone bill.
Sort of like arguing why people buy BMWs over GMs. They are both effective in getting you there, and some GMs even faster. You are buying a level of quality and feel, not just raw functionality. And with the Apple products, you are also buying an ecosystem of the best online music store and the most peripherals and other products that go with your choice.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
and 2, my father was a fighter pilot. For further info on the invasion of America contact Numbers USA and The Tea Party Don`t sell your stuff here, even if it`s assembled in the USA, Toyota moving backwards and out we hope !
If the tea party doesn't want me to buy something, that doesn't make me want to run away from it :shades:
If people refused to buy from American companies based on old American crimes, nobody would be buying anything.
I hope he doesn't listen to the Beatles, look at what England did in the Revolution!
For me, the "Revolution" was over 200 years ago. WWII ended 65 years ago. The main difference is, there are folks still alive on all sides who participated. To me, that's a big difference. America lost 400K lives--yes, 400K--in WWII.
American firms via their influence on foreign policy also aided the reds in the big war, the same reds who would enable the death of a further 100K Americans in later wars...so it's kind of a fuzzy debate.
My grandfather was in the Aleutians during that terrible war and later would own both Japanese and German cars. He didn't carry the grudge for too long, apparently.
A guy at the local Mercedes Club of America show this year was actually a POW at Stalag IX-B. What was he driving? A brand new E350 cabrio. Didn't hold a grudge to the current builders of cars because of the actions of long-dead lunatic leadership. And for a product like that, the domestics simply don't make anything comparable anyway.
And no worries about conspiracy theories...I love em :shades: ...and wars don't happen out of random events.
Ditto for my BMWs and the Mazda. It kind of makes me want to find a nice Alfa GTV- then I'd have a true "Axis" fleet!!!
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Hirohito on one side; FDR on our side
Mussolini on one side; FDR on our side
I guess Stalin seemed at the time (without later hindsight) to be the lesser of two evils by our guys.
It's pretty clear who the genuinely bad guys were...'Stockholm Syndrome' not withstanding.
But again...choice of automobiles is a personal decision.
My guess is that those who think differently are generally (accent on 'generally') younger than me.
I have a copy of the V-E Day paper from our small hometown (not a suburb; 9,000 residents). At that time, 35 soldiers had been killed in the war...each one had a photo and a small story in the paper and mentioned the parents and their addresses. My Dad had kept it all those years and I had it laminated. This really brought the war home to me, so to speak.
We have no right to a moral high ground, nobody does. Everyone is a criminal.
It's human nature.
Maybe it would be an issue for me if most "allied" vehicles that I would actually want to own weren't made before I was born...
It's human nature.
Gen. Curtis Lemay, the man in charge of bombing Japanese civilian targets (Tokyo and othe civilian areas) once said that he would be charged as a war criminal if the US lost the war.
At least, he was truthful about what he was doing at the time...
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/curtis_lemay.html
Living in the South, its easy to find someone who still holds a grudge against the North, and that war ended 150 years ago. Seems that some folks just can't let the past go....
Fin, a good friend of mine has owned several Japanese motorcycles over the years and last year he bought a BMW 1200GS. He absolutely loves it. He also considered a Ducati, but couldn't pull the trigger on one. He doesn't deal well with temperamental cars or bikes so in the end he passed on it.
We can't hold our noses up at anyone. I can't embrace claims of moral high ground or supposedly unprovoked attacks or failing to address one wanting to build an empire when an equally evil force already had one. Nobody has blood-free hands, and nobody truly acted out of altruism.
I anyway can't make a purchasing decision based on all of this. The real criminals are all dead now, the governments and leadership structures are long gone.
We are not all about truth and justice, honestly and righteousness. Japan and Germany were criminals - and we along with our allies have virtually the same history. All wannabe empires are criminals. We can't be smug and self-righteous about the past.
It's scary in my eyes to see anything even close to black and white regarding the war.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
If products and commodities cannot cross borders then guns and tanks do.
I am not really interested in the color of skin or language spoken but who produces the best product commensurate with the value factor. My vote goes to the producer who works the hardest and sweats the details.
Throughout history it seems that every tribe has slaughtered every tribe.
Then again I certainly understand the heartfelt emotions of those who lost loved ones in war.
Let us trade and have peace.
I wouldn't argue with you, but I suggest that you research the Pearl Harbor attack & the events that led up to it, as I did about 20 years ago. After I finished, much of the anger that I had felt toward the Japanese was transferred to our own top brass - notably Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, who was C-in-C Pacific Fleet at the time, & General Walter Short, who commanded the Army's Hawaiian Department.
Kimmel & Short shared responsibility for Pearl Harbor's security. Kimmel had primary responsibility while the Pacific Fleet was in the harbor, while Short was top dog while the Fleet was at sea.
Kimmel was absolutely convinced that a Japanese attack against Pearl would only take place while the Fleet was at sea, so he refused to take even elementary precautions - comprehensive aerial reconnaissance, for example - while the Fleet was in the harbor.
Short was equally convinced that any Japanese attack would take the form of sabotage. Consequently, he ordered Army fighter planes parked close together in bunches so that sentries could more easily guard them. As it happened, this also made it much easier for Japanese warplanes to destroy them before they could take off.
Both Short & Kimmel failed to act on a "war warning" message sent from Washington a few days before the attack.
If these men had done their jobs properly, Pearl Harbor would have been ready for war, & the Japanese would have killed or wounded far fewer Americans & inflicted far less damage. After the war, Japanese pilots who had participated in the attack said that they were astonished at how little resistance they encountered.
I was infuriated when the Senate passed a resolution in 1999 that largely exonerated Kimmel & Short.
As far as examples of folks being "OK" with it all, I do know a Jewish guy who to this day will not consider a Benz.
I feel that some stories about LBJ shooting JFK from two cars back and GWB planning 9/11 aren't far away on this board!
OK, that's an exaggeration.
As far as "moving on" or "getting over the past", for me it's a lot easier to get over that so-and-so's domestic car from 1985 was a piece of crap. If people won't even try an American brand auto today, and look for one built here and with high domestic content (they are out there, it doesn't take a ton of work to find them), then those people are as narrow-minded as anybody out there.
and Honda has a long way to go to match the 440 Dodge Magnum Charger (1967-70) remember The Dukes of Hazzard on TV and the R/T style and lets not forget the Ford T-Bird in 1958 w/ a 430 CID pushing 350 HP back then and the Dodge Challenger is highest rated in it`s class by J.D. Powers(but what do they know) and the 1970 earth -
shaking Hemi and the 440 R/T Six Pack 396 CID and the Barracuda ( 440 Cuda) Mopar Muscle Hemi powered and Lincoln Continental Mark V 1979 and today is top of the line just for starters to think about. I once had a 1968 454 CID (NOS) Charger all tricked out and no one could catch me except topfuel.
Question on JFK; why was all the evidence removed and why all the cover up in the plane back, notice the coffin change etc. Someone needs to step up and tell the truth.
But he won`t.
As a student of WWII, I believe that President Truman would have committed an impeachable offense if he had chosen not to use the A-bomb, once it was available. Those bombs saved more lives - both American & Japanese - than they cost
Going back to Pearl Harbor, I can't help but be struck by the difference between our fleets during the months leading up to the attack. Our Atlantic Fleet was on a wartime footing, with all units on a high state of alert. We had been exchanging fire with German U-boats since the summer of 1941. We obviously took Germany much more seriously as a potential adversary than we did Japan. Every high-ranking American officer firmly believed that war with Germany was inevitable & that the U.S. should prepare for it.
(Interestingly enough, it was widely rumored during the weeks after Pearl Harbor that the Japanese planes that took part in the attack were actually piloted by German Luftwaffe pilots. Even then, many Americans refused to believe that the Japanese had the technology & the skills to pull off the attack.)
In contrast, the Pacific Fleet might as well have been on another planet, even though the U.S. military had drawn up plans (known as War Plan Orange) for war with Japan back in the 1920s. Traditionally based in San Diego, the Fleet was transferred to Pearl just a year & a half prior to the attack to send a message to the Japanese - a move that made it much more vulnerable. The failure of senior commanders to take steps to mitigate that vulnerability is nothing short of criminal.
(Incidentally, I don't subscribe to the theory that FDR, looking for a "casus belli", deliberately baited the Japanese into launching the attack.)
In any event, the Japanese who planned & authorized the attack have been dead for decades. I doubt if any of the pilots who carried out the attacks is still alive. (Many of them died less than 6 months later, when the U.S. Navy sank 4 Japanese carriers during the Battle of Midway.) In all likelihood, none of the people, whether American or Japanese, actually involved in designing & building Japanese-brand cars was old enough to have fought in WWII. So I still can't see why this should be an issue, unless you believe that the children are accountable for the sins of their fathers. I certainly don't.