Outsourcing (True Story)

[AC560]

A small percentage of the profits goes to pay the executive salaries and corporate headquarters staff in the home county. The rest ultimately goes to the shareholders, which could be anybody anywhere.

Any company with a foreign HQ generally repatriates 100%+ of their US profits because of the US Corporate Tax Law.

Let's say your company is going to make $100M this year just stick on a foreign management fee of $110M and you are paying no USA taxes. Not really good for the US and a reason why we need to reform our tax law. If you are a US company like Dell you get pounded on taxes for example where Acer is going to send all that money back to Taiwan and pay no US taxes (and very little TW taxes).

You are correct though that ultimately the shareholders get that money either through dividends directly or through selling stock at a higher share price than they bought it at.

 

[Snapshot]

True Story?

While this is a perfect example of those great stories that show up in email chain letters with a message that the recipient is predisposed to absorb........

Does anyone have a source for this being an actual true story? Yeah, it's a great parable with some pertinent points, but I take exception to it being disseminated as something that actually happened.
The world we currently live in is saturated with misinformation, spin, half-truth, innuendo, logical fallacy, and outright lie. Pretending something is fact when it is not does a disservice to everyone involved. That's how we end up with a populace that holds Glenn Beck as an authority on science instead of actual scientists.

On the surface, it sounds like complete and utter bull$hit. I mean really. Read it again and tell me that it sounds like something that actually happened. A group of Mitsubishi (or whomever) workers and american workers took time off from producing cars to have a canoe race? Really? A canoe race.
You ever seen a NINE person CANOE? Think about it.

Would it be so hard to keep passing around information that we know is complete bull$hit, just because it happens to shore up whatever belief system we subscribe to? This 'ends justifies the means' approach to journalism and the truth ultimately hurts us all, regardless of what we believe. If you can't provide a reference to a legitimate source for the information that you are endorsing.....present it as your opinion, not as a fact. It's really not difficult to be honest and actually rely on truth to support your position.

We're all intelligent people here and we can do better.

 

[need2fly]

Mods,

Why is this in the major section?

 

[G4dude]

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses. The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles,) so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India . Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses. IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY

Ford was locked into union contracts that rendered it noncompetitive and unprofitable, so it left. Toyota employed non union workers in the US and made money.

 

[Jeepman]

I would rather the profits go to Japan, Korea, & Germany rather than here. Why? Here the ultra rich keep more here vs overseas.

 

[Nixon]

You don't row a canoe, you paddle it.

 

[cynic]

First it is important to point out that 4% of the households in America have incomes....

So you actually want to look at median personal income. If you look at household income not much has changed since the 1960s. But then you have to consider a number of households now have TWO people working.

If you look at median personal income it's dropping and that explains why people say the 'middle class' is dying.

We get cheap clothes and electronics from globalization - Good
Pretty much everything else we get is - Bad

 

[pilotyip]

Ford was locked into union contracts that rendered it noncompetitive and unprofitable, so it left. Toyota employed non union workers in the US and made money.

Old union joke at GM, how many union members did it take to change light bulb? Five, 1 electrician to turn off the power, 1 equipment resource person to get the light bulb, 1 equip set up specialist to erect the ladder, 1 ladder climbing rigger to climb the ladder and install the light bulb, and 1 Hazardous Waste disposal technician to dispose of the old light bulb. How many at a Toyota plant? The guy who saw it burned out. It was the 76 worker classifications that the union demanded that added to the demise by increasing over head cost compared to the non-union competition.

If you look at median personal income it's dropping and that explains why

What is middle class? When your were commenting about the demise of the middle class, I ask what defines middle class, is it, cars, good schools, I then ask you to define middle class by income level. What is middle class income? is it 46K, 50 percentile, is it 75K, 70 percentile, is in 90K, 80 percentile, is it 110K 90 percentile. Most pilots make a good living compared to the rest of the individuals in this country.

BTW I think I grew up middle class, 5 kids, 800 sq ft 2 bedroom house, one bath. I never had a room to myself, until I was in flight training and we stopped at an Air Force Base and they gave me a single room.

 

[cynic]

What is middle class.... is it 46K, 50 percentile, is it 75K, 70 percentile, is in 90K, 80 percentile, is it 110K 90 percentile. Most pilots make a good living compared to the rest of the individuals in this country.

For me, middle class would refer to the median income so that would actually be about 31K a year.

You are probably looking at median household income or average income which would not be reflective of a middle class income.

 

[Dumb Pilot]

Are these (Toyota, Nissan, Honda) or whatever plants non union because of the employees choice are they not? This is the US, doesn't matter who you work for on American soil you have the right to unionize if the employees so decide, If they choose not to unionize I would be willing to bet that their pay and conditions are not that bad.