I certainly didn't mean to offend. Nor did I mean to throw any city under the bus... sorta speak. Both cities.. appear to be failed or failing IMHO. I thought that new management might help. But.. mostly a bit of humor was intended.
To be honest - the overreaction was manufactured. I'm getting a bit tired of hearing how our cities and manufacturing are a thing of the past. Nonetheless, in the words of Colbert, I accept your apology (Humor intended).
You have much more hope than I can muster. I can only hope... your right. I thought GM was already gone. It is interesting to read it referred to as still a giant. I haven't heard of Boeing being a real player... in a long time ether. I grew up in the rust belt and have had a lifetime to accept the change. And now... looking back as well as forward... I see manufacturing in America as nearly gone.
I have to maintain hope - I have children and grandchildren that will have to deal with this.
GM is guilty of providing consumers with exactly what they desired. Large gas guzzling trucks and SUV's that we drive to the grocery store, and low interest financing so we can indulge ourselves even if we can't afford it today. The gas crunch struck and took out GM's high profit vehicles (the same happened to Ford, Toyota, and Honda) and then the financial crisis struck and took out GMAC. Pretty tough to make a go of things after both legs are taken out.
Canadians have a significant interest in the survival of GM and Ford as well. Both manufacturers have a significant number of facilities there.
I constantly marvel at the fact that we feel it necessary to outsource our manufacturing overseas to remain competitive. At the same time, overseas companies are opening new facilities in the US and somehow making things work.
It's silly to blame consumers or retailers! Making Walmart a scapegoat... is telling people its OK to be small minded. Back when I was a kid (we're talking nearly half a century ago) I was told that car manufactures would be reduced to TWO. That... THAT was just the way competition worked. I was also told the two would be GM... and likely Ford. NO ONE... guessed that Japan would ever make cars. But competition will ALWAYS narrow the number or players... eventually to two.
Half of all homes in the world... are made of mud. In global competition... the rest of the world is hard to beat.
I was not making Walmart a scapegoat. Walmart is a symptom of the problem - we, the American public are the problem. The entire bigger and more is better, finance what you can't afford today, short sighted mentality pervades everything we do. The problem is that we feel that we are entitled to our excess and it's simply not maintainable. In the 50's and 60's the average American live in a 900 sq. foot house and owned one car. Now the same American lives in a 2500 sq. foot home (with a three stall garage) and owns over two vehicles (number of registered vehicles has exceeded the number of drivers for many years).
While some of the above can be attributed to "quality of life" improvements, much of it is simple waste and excess. The problem is, this waste drives our economy - and again, it's not maintainable. This same mentality drives corporate America and the stock market. We demand year over year improvements in sales, net, and market share. It's no longer acceptable to be a stable company with good ROI over a five year period. If a company misses the numbers for a Quarter, the consumers expect a recovery plan (usually outsourcing or divestitures). I can't count the number of stable, profitable product lines that my company has sold because they were not achieving enough growth and were considered "Non-core" to our business. I've also wondered how Jack Welch was able to justify the purchase of NBC as being core to the GE portfolio (we tended to model ourselves after GE when that was still in vogue).
Japan auto manufacturers have enjoyed great successes over the past 20 years. Their manufacturing methods and attention to quality have improved the entire industry as others have scrambled to catch up. Toyota and Honda are now feeling the heat from the Korean manufacturers. Like GM and Ford in the 80's, Toyota and Honda cannot compete toe to toe with the likes of Hyundai and Kia. They are being pressured to cut costs and reduce cycle times just as the American manufacturers have been and, just like us, they are making mistakes.
Sorry for the diatribe. Although I've been eligible for retirement for some years now, I still choose to work. I'd like to think that I'm still adding something to the workforce and not just increasing my pension. Telling me that manufacturing is dead in America is akin to telling me that I've wasted many years of my life - it gets my dander up.
