Whirlpool Moving Plant To Mexico, While City Loses Its Economic Center
You'll remember I wrote about this before, when I first found out Whirlpool took millions in bailout money and then announced they were moving this plant to Mexico.
Now they've closed the plant and soon the town will turn into a ghost town:
“We were considered the refrigerator capital of the world,” said Randall Reynolds, who was a forklift driver.
But that family tradition will soon end because Whirlpool plans to close the plant on Friday and move the operation to Mexico, eliminating 1,100 jobs here. Many in this city in southern Indiana are seething and sad — sad about losing what was long the city’s economic centerpiece and a ticket to the middle class for one generation after another.
“This is all about corporate greed,” said Ms. Ford, who took a job at Whirlpool 19 years ago. “It’s devastating to our family and to everyone in the plant. I wonder where we’ll be two years or four years from now. There aren’t any jobs here. How is this community going to survive?”
At a time when the nation’s economy is struggling to gain momentum, Whirlpool’s decision is an unwelcome step backward. It continues a trend in which the nation has lost nearly six million factory jobs over the past dozen years, representing one in three manufacturing jobs.
Connie Brasel, who earned $18.44 an hour making thermal liners for the refrigerators, sees Whirlpool’s move as a betrayal not just of the workers but also of the United States.“This country made Whirlpool what it is,” she said. “They didn’t get world-class quality because they had the best managers. They got world-class quality because of the U.S. and because of their workers. And now they want to pack up and move to Mexico. I find it offensive.”
[...] The closing leaves not just Ms. Ford and her son without a job, but also her husband, a worker in the metal-pressing shop.
“My mom and dad told me that when they were young, there were jobs everywhere,” she said. “They said we had Whirlpool, Bristol-Myers, Mead Johnson, Windsor Plastics, Guardian Automotive, Zenith. Now if you want to find a job, there’s nothing around.”
Ask the workers who is to blame, and they say not just Whirlpool, but also President Bill Clinton for having negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated tariffs on trade with the United States’ neighbors. They say the pact has siphoned jobs to Mexico.
They also blame Indiana’s governor, Mitch Daniels, saying he has largely ignored their plight, and President George W. Bush and President Obama, saying they had done little to reverse manufacturing’s decline.
“When people are unemployed for a long period, they would look at any administration, including this one, as being part of the problem and not doing enough,” said Mohammed F. Khayum, the dean of the University of Southern Indiana’s business school. “It can definitely play a role in this November’s elections unless things turn around before then.”
Our country is missing a strong industrial policy, with an administration and Congress that chooses which manufacturers are important to support --and why. As long as economic disasters like this are repeated all over the country, I don't think Democrats are going to be pleasantly surprised this November.
And I'll just bet that the company honchos that made the decision consider themselves real good, patriotic Americans.
... that this is all the result of the existence of a global economy?
If other nations are making refrigerators, and are able to sell them for less (because their labor costs are less), what makes you think that Whirlpool is going to be able to remain competitive in the refrigerator market if everyone else's 'fridge costs less to purchase? If Whirlpool can't stay competitive, then those jobs go bye-bye anyways.
Now, I don't work for Whirlpool, or any other manufacturer of consumer goods in this country, and I certainly haven't attempted to do any price surveys of refrigerators retail prices by manufacturer, but when every other nation with a lower cost of living can undercut the prices that you charge for an equivalent item, just what do you think you're going to do?
If you want to blame the corporate heads for trying to save their own jobs instead of doing the noble thing by going down with the ship, I suppose you can do that. But that's not going to change the economic reality, which is that for a long, long time, American manufacturers didn't have any competition, so naturally they couldn't help but clean up in the marketplace. Those days are gone. America now has to compete in the global marketplace, and they start at a big disadvantage of having their workers living in a place where the cost of living is not cheap. That's the way it is.
What's your solution for putting everyone in the marketplace on an equal economic footing?
pharmaceuticals. Charge more for them in the US than they do in, say, Canada, and have the government enforce a monopoly for them. That should work.
(I should have mentioned Medicare Part D, although that is not the only rip-off going on).
It's still possible to be competitive and not make crappy products in Mexico or China. But its hard to do when the board is to responsive to stockholders who want instant profits.
The answer to the global market is to make a quality product with streamlined management - not a crappy product with two midlevel managers for every blue collar job.
And, yeah, the stockholders might like to see the 15% return every year as you slowly send all the manufacturing overseas, but if your brand goes to crap, you're done.
The more noise that is made about a boycott, the more effective it will be.
highest road attendance in all of major league baseball?
And they are the worst team in the National League. Shows you the power of liberal boycotts. Spread the word. Down with Tyranny. !.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
.
Noise.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
The idea that there is no such thing as bad press is not true.
as galvanized liberal ball fans refuse to root, root, root for the home team. All of baseball stands in awe.
Who did you say makes American refridgerators again?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I have an Amana which I believe COULD have been made in the US when I bought it. I really don't know. I have this paranoid feeling that everything is made on the cheap in China. Things may be assembled here, but all the components come from China.
I heard this Scottish businessman on TV a few years ago explaining that the shrimp from Scotland his company sold in markets were sent to Thailand to be cleaned and then sent back to Scotland for sale. He said he knew it sounded odd, but he insisted that it was cheaper to do that than have them cleaned in Scotland. I continue to wonder how the shrimp were transported to Thailand. I cannot get by that question. Hitchhike?
Maybe to begin with, not that many liberals were in the habit of attending the Yankee version of Cricket, AKA the world's most boring and pointless athletic competition. But I guess that is not as funny of a way to trash liberals, carry on then...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
Why is it that the only things republicans know how to do is lie?
And they don't even do that well.
Never mind the scheduling (like where they are playing on weekends, and who the home team is, and what their record is and which AL teams they played during inter-league play), it's just a fact that the Diamondbacks are not the #1 road draw.
Noooo This is about MEXICANS coming to our red white and blue to steal our JOBS!
Don't tell me it's about companies moving down to the Mexicans!!! That would upset my whole racist world view!!!
a chance to be productive for their families, while the spoiled and ungrateful energy pig and morally bankrupt Rep/Dems are left to twitter and pound pud on the internet.
And when the exodus of jobs that sustain the middle class reaches a cerain point, the middle class can no longer afford to buy the products. Shipping jobs overseas is the first step takren in putting a company in a death spiral. It's a symptom of a number of underlying maladies that effect how a company is run (or mis-run). The stock holders lose in the long run.
Like cars and everything else, there are high end items and low end. You can even save money by getting something made cheaply overseas. There's a problem with that. First, they probably aren't as energy effecient as U.S. made, and they certainly won't last as long.
I should also mention, you can purchase foreign made refrigerators that are much more expensive than whirlpool.
This is clearly a move to save money, increase margin, decrease labor, and increase dividends.
I'll have to purchase a replacement sometime in the future, and when I do, it will be american made (if possible). Trust me, the quality is higher.
exporting of jobs was always, first and foremost, about evading the social responsibilities inherent in good corporate citizenship, about evading legal responsibilities relating to environmental responsibilities and stewardship and about evading moral responsibilities as concerns worker rights and safety. All other considerations, including profitability are secondary. That evading these responsibilities and obligations increases profits is merely an incidental benefit to the company/corporation that is shirking its responsibilites. It also tells me that the company cares nothing for the well-being of its country or its citizens. Nothing at all.
This is one of the things that happens when sociopaths and psychopaths attain to power in the business world.
I'm sick of hearing the term, "remain competitive" being used interchangeably with "rapacious profit margin." Whirlpool bean counters are under pressure from the board of directors and stockholders to increase their quarterly profits. Unfortunately, this approach looks only at the short term, and fails to account for intangible consequences that don't appear on the spreadsheet. The reason labor is cheaper in Mexico is that Mexico doen't have a 150-year tradition of fighting for workers' rights. What's going to happen, say, after the Mexican workers get sick of working for rock-bottom wages in shitty conditions with shitty or no benefits? ANSWER: Either quality will decline and Whirlpool refirgerators will suck, or they will eventually get higher wages and better benefits, and then the shareholders will be right back where they are today, looking for another impoverished community to exploit.
This is exactly the kind of shit that makes me want to ram every car with a "buy American" sticker.
Corporate America doesn't give the slightest damn what happens to any American...except themselves of course. I live near Galesburg, Illinois, home of Maytag for decades. It closed for hecho en Mexico, too. Devastated the town. Remember that all Tylenol was produced in Indiana until Congress passed a law that drug companies that moved to Puerto Rico wouldn't have to pay federal taxes. That Indiana city had tax payers changed in to unemployment checks receivers. Evansville can join Galeburg & hundreds of other American towns who have been dumped on the trash pile by their corporate owned government.
Ehh...they're just lazy...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
tariffs NOW!
Cue the Kabuki....
I really feel for these people...but $18.44 an hour? DAMN!!! And have the nerve to blame Obama and Bush? Did they sign NAFTA?
when I was making almost $15.00 an hour plus benefits 25 years ago is not a lot of money for a middle class faamily. I'll bet that the refrigerators are more than double the cost of what they were in the mid 80s. The wages for the employees probably aren't more than 20% better.
Think 39K a year is too much or too little? Seems like a living wage to me.
... on where you are, and how many mouths you're trying to feed.
$18.44 is 38 thou a year before taxes, not exactly living high on the hog. People have gotten so used to the pathetic wages we get paid and living in debt they don't know what a real living wage is. I'll give you a hint, it isn't what you make at Wal-Mart.
$18/hr is bullshit. It won't get you a 2 bedroom apartment in San Diego unless your entire family is anorexic and walks to work. This is why both spouses have to work, if they are lucky enough to BE two. But not to worry. These "well paid" jobs are gone.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
big money - so what happens when Americans no longer have jobs - at all - as they have all been outsourced? When our high tech drain has drained the mental tank? .... when no one has the money to purchase anything? Oh thats right - sell the crap to the Chinese! But then they make crap for 'Merkins... so when 'Merkins can't buy the Chinese crap.... you get the point....
38K a year might be fine if you're single. Add some family to that equation. Daycare? Good fuck, that's like another mortgage payment.
I don't know. But I can tell you it's not a whole hell of alot. 20 years ago in L.A. I made that, was single, and I barely had enough to pay rent, car payments (used car) insurance and bills.
Blaming this on the workers is totally missing the point.
DAMN! I made more than that with full health care benefits, time and a half for overtime, 12 paid sick and 10 paid vacation days, and if I worked on a holiday, I got time and a half, AND 8 hours for the holiday.
Oh yeah, and a cost of living raise (12%) every year without fail.
In 1980.
associates.
Go here: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/whirlpool-c...
in 2006. Yeah, they can't afford to pay those 1,000 employess. I'll remember them for sure.
With all the people of color fleeing Arizona, there are thousands of jobs picking veggies. Move there.
Pbbbt....
Welcome again to Ayn Rand's Paradise.
With all the people from Arizona fleeing back to Mexico, there are thousands of workers ready to work in the new Whirlpool plant.
Towns: Detroit, Camden, Allentown...pathetic.
"Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying..."-------Roger Waters, "Comfortably Numb"
yaay! cheap appliances! The magic of the free market at work! Hoo hoo hoo hoo hooo!
What? You can't afford them? You're unemployed? You slacker! Get away from me!
*snark off*
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Bigger profits for the corporation and bigger bonuses for the CEOs. Prices will still go up.
Even more when you have to replace that same fridge in 3 or 4 years.
Just asking...
Wasn't it Sam who once stated that all Walmart merchandise would be American made?
I will never buy another Whirlpool. Had our eye on an under-cabinet microwave. Not a chance now. I am writing the company to let them know I won't be, AND I will shout out to everyone I can reach.
above.
... all those other brands. Chances are most or all of them already were imported.
Even if they only "market" them, they should still be boycotted, right? The only power we have is the power of the purse. Refuse to buy from these outlaws, and big trouble comes to them.
I grew up in Berrien County, Michigan where Whirlpool was founded. They were the economic engine of St. Joe - Benton Harbor. Then they fucked the people that had worked there for years. Same thing down in Buchanan about forty miles away. Clark Equipment made forklifts and other gear. They moved to North or South Carolina to get out of their union contract. Big fuck up on their part. You get what you pay for.
I bought a few Heathkit electronics items way back.
They saved me 60K on college level tech school.
Norge/Maytag was made near where I grew up:
http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news.php?art...
All they left were the PCB's in the groundwater.
Whirlpool hosed Benton Harbor.
Who can forget that Erik Prince of Blackwater fame is from nearby Holland, Michigan.
another NAFTA success story.
thanks, Bill Clinton!
Don't forget the complicity of Congress in passing NAFTA. People always forget that.
oh, I haven't forgotten.
it was the rightwing congress and the soft rightwing Clinton who accomplished this magical feat for the corporate masters.
on all of their houses!
I will count myself along with many others in the boycotting of their products. The outsourcing of jobs needs to end!
Ross Perot in October 1992:
To those of you in the audience who are business people, pretty simple: If you're paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory South of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, hire young -- let's assume you've been in business for a long time and you've got a mature work force -- pay a dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care -- that's the most expensive single element in making a car -- have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south.
So we -- if the people send me to Washington the first thing I'll do is study that 2,000-page agreement and make sure it's a two-way street. One last part here -- I decided i was dumb and didn't understand it so I called the Who's Who of the folks who've been around it and I said, "Why won't everybody go South?" They say, "It'd be disruptive." I said, "For how long?" I finally got them up from 12 to 15 years. And I said, "well, how does it stop being disruptive?" And that is when their jobs come up from a dollar an hour to six dollars an hour, and ours go down to six dollars an hour, and then it's leveled again. But in the meantime, you've wrecked the country with these kinds of deals. We've got to cut it out.
Now, now, here's the deal. Ross Perot was a phony. He got his education free from the government. He made all of his money off the government. Then he turned around and ran his mouth about how bad the government was. Never really offered any real solutions. He was a fraud.
I am not holding him up as some saint. I offered a quote from the 1992 presidential debates that describes what is currently happening. The other two in the debate, GHWB (R) and WJC (D) thought this was a great deal.
Straw Man? Nope. Clinton said, I don't necessarily agree with him, that he signed NAFTA, because he knew that Congress would over ride his veto. I personally think that NAFTA is a bad deal. I still think that Perot is an asshole. He doesn't really understand democracy or government. He was a dictator as a businessman and sought to take that style into government.
Injecting your personal feelings about Perot instead of commenting about his statement about NAFTA, while at the same time agreeing with his view that NAFTA was a bad deal, is not a straw man? OK....
Does anyone know if any appliances are still made in the US? We're not immediately in the market for any new ones, but in a couple years will need a washing machine.
or a river and a washboard?
... in the bathtub.
You could throw out a fishing line and catch dinner too.
we still make paddle balls don't we?
My best friend and I tried to find one a few months ago because her washer died. Good luck. Kenmore used to be great, now they suck, suck, suck. Same with Craftsmen tools. All made in China, now. And we all know how much they care about quality there. About as much as they care about human rights.
that I believe was called "Still made in the USA" or something close to that.... but who knows, it may have been out-sourced
Like many major department stores who have sold appliances under their badge,Sears obviously did not make their own washers,etc. Kenmore washers and dryers were made by -- Ta-dah! -- Whirlpool. Let's also not forget that Whirlpool bought out Maytag a few years ago,and from men who know appliances (my late dad,who tinkered with washers as a hobbie, and a friend who has sold appliances for a living for some 50 years) have told me,that Whirlpool has turned that iconic Maytag brand into a piece of shit. Incidentally,both men swore by one brand (A favorite of many laundramats for a long time),which is still made in the United States,Speedqueen: Ripon,Wisconsin. A little pricier than other brands,and the LGs that are now prevalent in laundramats across the country,but made better(beefier they tell me),and will help keep American workers working here at home making decent wages. It will definitely be my next washer purchase! :)
http://www.speedqueen.com/home/
Buy American.Buy Speedqueen. :)
http://www.staber.com/
Remember, American companies accept that low quality. They want price, price, price....driven by the new rock-bottom price retail mentality now engrained in most people by companies like Walmart. Walmart and now most big retailers want a lower price and higher wholesale margin from you every year and you better deliver it or you're history. Lack of real wages in this country anymore fuels the problem.
I worked in manufacturing as Product Manager for an auto-part supplier for years, manufacturing in the US, Mexico, China, and Vietnam.
I don't work in this industry anymore because I refuse to help destroy American families. Global competition has forced folks like me to sit in meeting rooms for long hours, on conference calls with Chinese factories, whittling away at cost models trying get a cheaper and cheaper price, or lose my job.
When I succeeded, I knew I was causing others to lose their jobs. Like the Americans who could have made my products.
Globalization is big-mistake and a race to the bottom.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
My college roomate was good at that....
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
Capitalism trumps patriotism for corportate America. Ask Dick Cheney.
obligation corporations have is to make profits. They're only following the law. Sheesh! Give the poor things a break. Preferably, a tax break.
it is their legal responsibility to make fistfuls of cash on behalf of their shareholders. hence, the imperative of the state to establish rules and regulations to protect citizens and to create an even playing field for businesses to operate.
but, as they've done for decades and decades and decades, the govt has used its power to facilitate corporate rapaciousness.
Sorry to say it, but you can thank Bill Clinton for this.
Signing NAFTA in to law was the most colossal failure of his entire presidency.
and relaxing the rules and regulations of media ownership.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
and attempting to work with the impeachment happy GOP
i am surprised that they hadn't moved to Mexico a lot earlier...
We bought GE appliances out of spite for whirlpool. I know GE off-shored alot also but it was a sticking point in the past few months. Wife emailed Whirlpool and told them she was buying someone elses products since they felt it was OK to rid America of jobs we would not buy their products. So far, approx $1700 spent with GE when we would have bought whirlpool. Remember, Whirlpool owns a ton of brands such as Kitchenaid,Maytag,Kennmore (and a few more. Check the manufacturer before you buy.
Hate to see them do it to someone else.
It's a bloody shame.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
How's that Ayn Randee stuff workin' out fer ya?
Ayn Ronnie? You betcha *wink wink*
"As long as economic disasters like this are repeated all over the country, I don't think Democrats are going to be pleasantly surprised this November."
So the logical choice for the voter against this is to vote Republican?
wow!
i can't belive you people! and this is supposed to be the creme de la creme of the progressive community?
whatever have politicians done since 1980 that makes you think they have anybodies interests other than thier corporate masters interests at heart?
jesus! no wonder obama and emanuel,not to mention the slimy republicans have zero respect for you.
30 years and you still haven't figured it out.
i wonder how long before this community realizes that maybe a third or fourth party might be the answer, 50 years?
of the progressive community?"
What's credible your source for that claim?
me-oww!
I'm blushing. No, wait--that was a hot flash. Never mind.
Wow!
I can't believe El Segundo, and he/she is supposed to be the pillar of the Santa Monica Bay.
Whatever at stating the obvious that this website and blog has gone over and over the past few years make he/she think that by making some gross allegation would somehow jive with some of the readers here?
Allah! No wonder many won't even consider your comments to be credible and why would we want respect from "slimy republicans" when we have our own jerks to deal with?
30 years of Reaganomics have destroyed this country and many (if not all of us) recognize that.
We all understand that we need a better political system, but the current one will not and cannot sustain viable third- or fourth-party candidates unless the voting system and the election process change at some point.
But thank you for playing.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
.
back up what you are saying about no viability for third or fourth parties and try to make sense will ya.
one thing you guys are right about though, it is the commentators who think they are progressive, the commenters certainly aren't.
on the wall....
are you sitting on the highest horse of all?
Your bigotry is showing...
As with every identifiable 'subgroup' of humans, the commenters on C&L range from the very good to the very reprehensible. Lumping us all together and saying we're not progressive or that we 'haven't figured it out' is both bigoted and wrong.
For better than twenty years, I have been telling my friends and anyone who will listen that our system of capitalism is akin to a giant ponzi scheme, ultimately benefiting a very few at the expense of the very, very many.
For better than twenty years, I have been telling friends and anyone who will listen that our economic train wreck occurred during Saint Ronnie's tenure; that the train is still screeching down the track under the impetus of our relentless economic behavior, which has maintained the facade that all is right in our wee economic world; that really it's just a matter of time until the wrecked train grinds to a complete halt...
A friend asked what is she gonna do since her unemployment has run out and Congress is delaying an emergency extension, and she can't buy food, pay her mortgage, or keep her power on.
I reminded her of the French Revolution.
Since my friend is older and doesn't move as rapidly as she used to, she cannot comprehend the probability of a revolutionary response to the radical economic inequity being thrust down our throats by the Corporate Megalomaniacs who've usurped our planet.
I reminded her that social change movements have been predominantly the milieu of our youth, and observed that when enough of us are out of work, starving and destitute in the streets, radical social change will be inevitable.
So...be wary of lumping all of us C&L commenters into one homogeneous group. Such bigotry is a waste of time and energy.
People are scared cowards. If you understand what's really happening (and you nailed it), only violence will change it.
I'm sorry America. Get off your asses and be willing to SCARE the government. They fear the mob. They fear losing control. 95% of people help them enforce that control like a dumb herd lead off to slaughter.
Teabaggers flashing guns and talking about the 2nd amendment to change it is ludricrous. The Taliban are far better armed and trained than any American redneck and they haven't won yet.
Swell the streets WITHOUT permits. Set roadblocks, fires, sit-ins, shutdowns, strikes. FORCE the fascists to ACT and begin their own demise by shooting us. Be willing to fight back. Create a Tiananmin Square. People will have to die but it's worth it.
It will be ugly, and I want to keep trying to convince people peacefully, but we must sober up to that fact that the guillotine may need to fall one day.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
First order of business is public financing of campaigns, because until then all are corruptible no matter what parties old or new they belong to.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
They're siphoning off our jobs to Mexico even as they are sending their citizens over here to steal our local jobs. We should give American corporations bigger tax breaks!
/end cognitive dissonance/
how seriously things are screwed up in Mexico when corporation ship jobs there and the Central and South Americans are still coming to our country for jobs.
If I wasn't already sick, I would be a little sick.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
Not sure if your tongue was firmly compressed against your cheek,but what person would want to "steal" stoop labor jobs or cleaning up pubic hairs from motel room shower stalls,etc?
Or are we just too good of citizens in this country to take on job like that?
I have to clean the bathroom of my office once every three or four weeks. Why? Crappy economy and cutbacks has my co-workers and I doing the cleaning work as well.
We used to have people that did that sort of thing. I hope the economy gets better so someone else can do it.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
Whirlpool Refrigerators in Mexico. Plus people here like you a lot better.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
..IF you have all your documentation in order! It's something of a conditional love spelled out in various state statutes.
a seething "Buy American" zealot across the decades.
But now, I'm pretty sure Ed Schultz is right.
What we thought was a positive note in the step forward of bringing a global economy to bear has simply been uncovered as an asinine theory of equity sharing that, when positioned by corporate leaders with profit as their only true motive, DOES NOT WORK.
It is clear as day that country by country, when one group of workers wins, another loses.
The corporate heads are in the catbird seat and win regardless of the base for their manufacturing.
The only way we can turn this around is to stop putting money in the pockets of companies who choose to squeeze another penny of profit out of each dollar while not paying US workers a fair wage and not contributing to the tax rolls while amassing millions in personal and legacy wealth.
We as a collective nation have really fucked this up.
we buy to power them. I know I won't work for $18 per hour and if unemployment benefits are not extended beyond 99 weeks I am going to disconnect my ISP and the OFA will never know what hit them come November.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
a ghost town?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Did Bobby Knight leave?
Texas. Only a few twisted shards of folding chair remain from the Championships he manufactured with free labor.
But I beleive that was Bloomington. Besides, Indiana downsized, merged with Purdue, and now have a nifty team in Indianapolis.
IUPUI. Sounds like a union acronym but it is not.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
When that dreadful Toyota company announced they were moving those Evansville jobs overseas to San Antonio, Texas. You know that plant is located in an old US Air Base seized by Rick Perry when Texas seceded.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Yep, we have to choose between the GOP and the DLC, or else we're not "serious" political commentators.
I may be a lot of things, but I'm not bad at math.
I sure would like to know Blue Dog "Democrat" Brad Ellsworth's response to this...
Does Blue Dog "Democrat" Evan Bayh have a comment?
Mike Pence? Any comment? (Oops, meant old Loogie, Dick Luger)
Vote Repub?
There's better than a 2:1 registration advantage to Repubes in the county.
that were out in the streets goose stepping us into Iraq
prove your statements and try to make sense will ya.
but you guys are right about one thing. it is the commentators who think they are progressive not the commenters, who obviously aren't.
.
how any of the companies think that Americans will be able to afford their products if they keep this up.
Immediate short-term profits. That's about as far as they go.
if only I could afford something to boycott.
admit that those Mexicans have as much right to those jobs as an American. Canadians watched the same manufacturers close their branch plants and consolidate production at bigger plants in the States. I don't recall many complaints at that point in time. Hey workers of the world unite!
Hasa Diga Eebowai
... and worry later about them lefties.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
that comment. So I will boycott it. Besides the College World Series is on. I cannot deprive the Arizona squad of my attention,
so I must instead sneer at the Oklahomans for their oil owned electoral by-products. It is the liberal thing to do. I will stop by the fridge on the way back to the television.
Perhaps there is a good Mexican beer chilled in there somewhere.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
free.....markets.
Capitalism hates socialism...but guess who picks up the pieces after you know who leaves town....
This one is old news . We bail em out and they split , move across the border for cheap Mexican labor . Why did they bother ? That's the question , there are more than enough illegal / undocumented and cheap labor still here , they didn't have to split .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
100 % right , the only ones in the world who have benefited and do benefit are the Fat Cats , , the "slave owners" , corporations and investor fat cats just profit all the more , it has not improved life for the workers anywhere . NAFTA is a good example , Clinton knowingly shafted the American worker and the average American family and NAFTA did not improve conditions or wages for workers in other countries , it was a give away to the corporations and the wealthy . If this trend continues and isn't stopped it won't be long and we will be on par with Mexico as far as living standards , jobs and wages . .People knock unions but without one you are powerless and SOL , that's why Reagan hated and the Repugs / Reich hate unions with a passion , instead of being completely at the employers mercy ,workers have a little clout and protection ... God forbid ! Unless we the people rise up and fight back ( good luck with that happening ) we will look back not so long from now and even these will have been the good old days .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
Why is it that the only things republicans know how to do is lie?
And they don't even do that well.
Never mind the scheduling (like where they are playing on weekends, and who the home team is, and what their record is and which AL teams they played during inter-league play), it's just a fact that the Diamondbacks are not the #1 road draw.
Because if they ever told the truth they would self destruct and would never win . The only way they can win with their ideology is through deception and lies , that's a fact .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
...that's enough to get whirlpool removed from my bidders' list.Won't be doing anymore business with them.
Remove all you want, but remember to remove the ones going to china, india and the like, at least whirlpool is going next door, we wanted to keep the mexicans out anyway, didn't we?, 'course that's just a drop in the pan, but there'll be more.
Waaaaa, I just lost my $18.44/hour job making thermal liners to a brown-skinned person.
Where is Indiana's governor Mitch Daniels, who was recently quoted in Politico that government employees are "new privileged class in America" who "are better paid than the people who pay their salaries." Yeah, it's real easy to be better paid than the jobless! Where is Our Man Mitch with his megaphone and bully pulpit railing against such treasonous action? Our Man Mitch who will take millions from taxpayers' pockets to hand over to millionaire drug addicts? When has Millionaire Mitch ever say that professional athletes that are being subsidized by the hard earned taxes of working Indiana men and women are overpaid? Where are the Teabaggers rallying and crying "America for Americans?" as this plant slinks over the boarder? Where are the politicians who will put in place neccessary protections for American workers and finally realize than stable employmenet goes hand-in-hand with national security? Whirlpool should be taxed to the gills on every appliance they try to bring back over the boarder and tax incentives given to companies that manufacture in the USA. This is a far worse problem than illegal immigration as apparently the working conditions and pay in these plants are so bad that Mexicans would rather do the worse jobs in the USA than do jobs that were considered good jobs in the USA that are now based in Mexico.
"Waaaaa, I just lost my $18.44/hour job making thermal liners to a brown-skinned person"
Bite Me.
terrible writing. I had to search and search to find the location you were talking about. Poor journalism.
in the text, "closed the plant." That leads to a New York Times article starting with the words, "EVANSVILLE, Ind." By the way, blue text indicates a hyperlink.
While You want to get rid of the mexicans we also want to keep the jobs here, understandable, but, not possible, this just comes to bite these people in the butt for trying to raise hell about labor with nativism and all that, so suck it racists!
yep, that's the brand I'll be buying.
Just heard this morning Ford is building a $450 million plant in Thailand. Solves a problem for me anyway, I can buy a better car, a Toyota, that was made in the USA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCVzWOIx3qg
"Never before have so few with so much promised to take away so much from so many and then laugh their asses off as the so many with so little vote for the so few with so much." A James Pence Quote
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