"Kswck" > wrote in message
...
>
> "brooklyn1" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> "Andy" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> "Uhhh.... the best auto industry in the world." --Barak Obama, 4/30/2009
>>>
>>> Since when???
>>>
>>>
>> Not since some forty years ago. Prior to 1965 one could buy a new
>> American made auto and expect it to last ten, fifteen, twenty, even
>> twenty five years. Now one rarely sees an American auto on the road
>> that's more than five years old, they're built with the same obsolesence
>> as incandescent light bulbs, they're throw aways. An American auto used
>> to be considered an investment... and in fact one could write off the
>> interest on an auto loan same as a mortgage... which of course would be
>> one way to help save the US auto industry, bring back the interest
>> deduction on auto loans for new US autos only. However lot more needs
>> doing, US industry is certain to collapse within the next few years
>> unless a huge push is brought to bear for vocational training... the US
>> has a tremendous shortage of skilled machinists and tool makers, most
>> tooling and precision parts are imported, have been for a long time. An
>> economy can't exist with everyone driving a cubicle.
>>
>
> Many cars have parts made in other countries. Chrysler have their motors
> made by Mitsubishi or in Canada.
>
That's exactly what I said. The US auto worker is not skilled labor,
assembly line production is not skilled... any monkey can be trained to put
the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole.
American manufacturing companies want to pay skilled workers at the
unskilled labor rate so it's no wonder there are no young folks who want to
serve a machinist/toolmaker apprenticeship, and in fact American industry
doesn't sponsor skilled apprenticeship programs, they never have... the only
way to learn is by knocking around from one small jobbing shop to another,
taking abuse for little pay. The US government has never sponsored
vocational training programs either. In Germany, Japan, and many other
industrialied countries a toolmaker is worth more than a medical doctor.