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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (40078)	5/19/1999 8:34:00 PM
From: Clever Nick Name	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 94695

-- OT -- sorry thread Having worked both in auto factories for several years and being in the final stages of a 10 year journey to a doctorate in engineering I feel compelled to respond to this. AUTO WORKERS ARE NOT OVERPAID!! The average line worker has 45 seconds to complete all his operations on a vehicle. These operations are always 'balanced' so that 45 seconds is what is required to complete these tasks after several weeks of learning. The people on the line work like dogs, with no say over even the smallest facets of their work days, in a noisy, hot and polluted environment for around 45k/year base salary. With overtime it can be substantially more, but any auto worker working 10 hour days does little other than sleep eat and work. Having worked these jobs many times I can honestly say they are underpaid. If you haven't done time in one of these places I suggest you shut up about it, because you have no idea what it is like. If you want to point fingers at over paid auto workers, take a hard look at professional athletes. They are largely paid through the auto companies outrageous advertising budgets. I don't envy a dime the average auto worker gets compared to the meager compensation I will get for years of education. I do resent the NBA tax that is included in the price of every new car on the market.

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (40078)	5/19/1999 10:02:00 PM
From: John Gault	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 94695

L3, I don't think most third world countries are going to have the same view of capitalism the Us has, or at least had. The ground up capitalism isn't going to happen. Major Multi-national companies will be able to move in and dictate the price of labor because it's too plentiful. With the advancements in manufacturing, delivery , and scale it will be almost impossible to compete, imho. Which is why you have not seen the standard of living improving for Mexican workers and why right along the boarder labor is cheaper then in the center of Mexico>>>> how can that be if capitalism is working? Because near the boarder is where the Us factories were set up. citizen.org "Maquila Model Spreads Throughout Mexico: Rather than decreasing the role of maquiladoras along the border, NAFTA has encouraged the spread of export processing zones into Mexico's interior. Mexican officials have announced that their original plans to pursue the elimination of maquilas under NAFTA by revoking their special tax treatment may now be jettisoned.(100) Proponents of export processing zones have claimed that "more sophisticated factories are scattered throughout the country."(101) Instead, they are simply promoting the spread of the export manufacturing zones to parts of Mexico with even lower wages. Lack of Mexican Business Development Under NAFTA: 300 maquila firms, mostly foreign transnationals, account for 70% of Mexican exports. Yet these maquiladoras use less than 6% of Mexican inputs(102) and pay the typically low wages associated with maquiladora employment. NAFTA Crushes Mexican Small Businesses: Under NAFTA, by 1997, an estimated 28,000 small businesses in Mexico had been destroyed by competition with foreign multinationals and their Mexican partners.(103) "

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (40078)	5/20/1999 2:12:00 AM
From: cAPSLOCK	Respond to of 94695

Sorry but I disagree but I guess I think like a CEO <g> ... Besides, that guy making 50 cents an hour lives pretty good off that... When I was in the Phillipines, I could party like an animal from Friday afternoon till the wee hours on Sunday night for under 20 bucks and that included things every night that would cost you $200 in Vegas <g> Boy.. You DO 'think like a CEO' dont you?? ;) ;) ;)

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (40078)	5/20/1999 11:22:00 AM
From: Yogizuna	Respond to of 94695

Lee, Oh yes, those Philippina cuties, my heart, my heart, I'm getting too old to think about it! <G> I have a Philippina woman friend who is around my age now, and her nickname is "Nene", which means "cute girl" in the Philippines, or so she tells me. About the subject of debate, I would'nt be so quick about calling the work "unskilled labor" does something "a monkey can do", because in the late 1960's and much of the 1970's, I had some jobs that were of those type, and believe me, it was often boring as hell, and I often felt as if I were literally in prison. So those jobs are not as easy as you think in some ways, and the good folks who can take the monotony and abuse many of those "unskilled jobs" give out are to be praised for being able to do the work and take the many negative aspects of those types of jobs, one of which should NOT be poverty wages to boot. That is my opinion because even though I was one of the top students in school and college prep material all the way, I chose to live and work with the lower classes of society in my youth, and gained mountains of real life experience and insight from living "in the trenches" so to speak. It looks like the market is all chilled out and very calm here now, as we await the loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong overdue "Big Kahuna"! Yogi