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To: LindyBill who wrote (120678)	6/18/2005 4:49:37 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793799

res-As its turns out, more than 40 percent of the nation's imports are from the overseas subsidiaries of American companies, contributing to the lopsided trade deficit, but also making companies more competitive. HA! Someone finally commented on what has been bugging me for a long time regarding trade numbers. If 40% of those numbers are derived from American companies exporting to the U.S. from overseas, do trade numbers really mean anything? For that matter, are they really "American companies" simply because they're listed on the American stock exchanges.

To: LindyBill who wrote (120678)	6/18/2005 9:28:39 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793799

Now that's very interesting story. Labor costs are higher for Whirlpool in the US, but it only takes an hour to make a washing machine, so the difference between an hour's wages in Mexico ($3) or China ($1) and in the US ($23) isn't all that important in the cost of a washing machine ($629 - $999 at Costco) (the front loaders made in Germany are $1029 at Costco). Very interesting. Earlier this week, we learned that $1500 of the cost of a GM car made in Detroit goes for health care benefits, but of the 1.1 million people that GM provides health care benefits to, only 160,000 are current employees, the rest are retirees and their families. What's going to happen to GM when they lay off another 25,000 employees, and the ratio of employee to retiree gets worse? theconservativevoice.com I should try to talk my kids into becoming doctors. No, wait, they might wind up nationalized and providing Hillarycare. Eeek.