Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Automotive News & Views Does America Even Need Its Own Automakers?
1788 messages, Last post on Mar 03, 2009 at 2:18 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
|
|
|---|---|
|
Replying to: british_rover (May 20, 2007 3:20 pm)  America is still tops at making plenty of "hard" stuff---construction equipment, hi-tech weaponry, aerospace, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 20, 2007 3:24 pm) Levels of value added profitability... 1. Resource Based Mining, Lumber Oil/Gas Etc. The profit level here when measured as a percentage of investment is the lowest. These are already being moved out of the US for various reasons and this will just be accelerated as time moves on. 2. Resource Processing. We have already seen this happen with the US steel industry as it has nearly completly collapsed. Most of the steel mills left are mini mills that are recyling steel instead of making virgin steel. 3. Low Level Manufacturing. Small low tech devices like basic appliances, furniture construction materials and textiles. Again much of this industry has left the US. 3. Automobile manufacturing. Some has left the US although plenty is still here. I don't see this ever complety leaving the US but I can see it changing drasticly. and so on and so forth. The top level currently is phramaceuticals. The Profit potiential is huge but it requrires huge investment and huge risk. You can make the drugs any where, India and Brazil make many low cost drugs, but the development is limited to a few areas. |
|
|
Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 20, 2007 12:30 pm) 
|
|
|
But perhaps it's possible. Honda and Toyota employ quite a few engineers and designers here in the U.S., and Detroit isn't getting any healthier economically. GM, however, seems to be getting back on track. I'll have to get back to everybody on this... In the meantime I'll bookmark it. 
|
|
| From where I sit (the high tech industry), the U.S. is clear and away the leader. The lower level stuff is done all over the world, but the big profits and creative things (like conceiving the software and designing the devices)- it's done in places like Silicon Valley and the Asians are relegated to being implementers and consumers- really, can you name one Asian software company that sells products outside of their home markets? To be honest, in many areas of creative intellectual property, the Asians are clueless. Also in entertainment, logistics, management consulting, food, and many other fields, we lead the way. I am not worried. The biggest problem is that many of the Asian currencies are way undervalued and manipulated. But even that will have its endgame at some point. | |
|
|
edmunds outsource their hosts to india? 
|
|
|
... speed the process up, nor would I try to save any of the (not so) Big (anymore) Three. Let it play its course. If it so comes that we all buy cars designed in Torino/Paris (best esthetic design), engineered in Tokyo with input from Stuttgart or Munich, assembled in India or Russia, so be it. Any other scheme possible, too - I honestly don't care. Let the market and consumers decide if we need American brand. If guys in Delhi can do it better and cheaper, let them - I will get their product, hopefully for less - and they'll be rewarded. That's what the capitalism should be about - you do it better, you get the reward, you suck - you die (not saying domestics suck now - just making the point, whoever is better should win). On part of manufacturing - there is still plenty of that in America left. Some of them are kicking major foreign competition a!$#. It was inept and poor leadership both on management and labor levels that practically killed this industry in its present form. Oh, lets also give credit to those other guys' dedication and skills, shall we? Perhaps it will emerge - but if not somebody will pick up the slack - India, China, Eastern Europe. Who knows... |
|
|
|
|
Maybe Edmunds should outsource it's hosts to India!! What provoked you to say that little incindiary tidbit? Are you saying the hosts here are...umm...overpaid...in some way?  I still would love to know why the Big 3 avoided making a decent small car for the last 40-odd years. Yikes. Talk about a long dry spell there. And in many respects, where's the relief? Could it be the Dodge Hornet? Made by an SAIC or Chery or who knows who lately? Does Dodge know who's gonna build their little Mini-Cooper stinger?
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (May 20, 2007 6:10 pm)
|
|
|
|
|
Wow, I like deep philosophical discussions! Here's my $0.02: Whenever a consumable object becomes a commodity, it is bound to go where there is cheaper labor to manufacture it. It has happened with many industries (toys, steel, furniture, camera), could happen with many more (electronics, automobiles, pharmacy, aviation). The brilliance of the American system lies in inventions, enterpreneurship, and the thinking ability to come up with new products and market them while the window of opportunity exists. Autos are now a commodity, since they are mass manufactured and follow very similar designs (wheels at 4 corners, the same IC engine burning a mixture of gasoline and air, front wheels to steer and propelled by friction between rubber and tar/concrete). I wouldn't mind if the entire auto industry gets outsourced. What really bothers me though, is the institutes of higher learnings getting shipped overseas, to Singapore, UK, India or South Korea. Collective thinking in a socity produces the goodies, and if a nation damages the thinking process, it will be doomed. America saw great days with automobiles in the 40's thru the 70's and electronics from the 60's thru the 90's. I believe the next wave will be nano technology and bio-medical engineering, for the next 3 or so decades. Then those would get outsourced, too. Perhaps we will get into the modes of space travel, then. As our lives stand today in the global economy, the nation that comes up with a propulsion technology free of gasoline will win the race of having a higher standard of living for its citizens compared to the rest of the world. OK, I'll step off the podium now. Best wishes, - MS.
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Automotive News & Views Does America Even Need Its Own Automakers?
