America Last - Ford now considering moving $1B truck plant expansion to Mexico

[Invisible Man]

diversifying further is asking for trouble.

American companies outsourcing manufacturing to other countries so as to have each country focus more on the products or aspects of production that they have comparative advantages in is the opposite of diversifying.

 

[Invisible Man]

My guess is future tax reasons.

Here's to hoping.

 

[Snowball]

Oyarde, you are not considering the fact that Ford parts have been produced in Mexico for decades already.

 

[oyarde]

Oyarde, you are not considering the fact that Ford parts have been produced in Mexico for decades already.

Everybody produces parts everywhere . As an example GM used to make door panels near here then send them to assembly plants in Canada and Texas daily. Thats costs a lot of money .

 

[oyarde]

The costs of these particular products are going to be out of range for 9 tenths of the population anyway. I would assume only companies will be buying electric trucks and 350 to 750's. Or people who can deduct the purchases. Probably nothing going to be under 100k.

 

[oyarde]

The purchaeses of a 100K truck would include an added 7k in sales tax here.

 

[tod evans]

American companies outsourcing manufacturing to other countries so as to have each country focus more on the products or aspects of production that they have comparative advantages in is the opposite of diversifying.

Obviously we view diversifying differently.

Diversity in the supply chain ties companies to other nations politics. As we're seeing...

ie; trouble.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Learn to code AF.

To hell with that...I've put my skills on the bench.

I'll go run parts for the local NAPA store.

 

[oyarde]

Ideally it would be nice if Ford was building all these trucks here with parts made here by people employed here . Reallity is govt has meddled in business to the point everything becomes very complicated. First thing I would do to encourage more mnfg is gut govt regulations.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Edit: Let's say it was like you just said though. Suppose "the Mexicans" were just going to give us F-250s. Since you put it that way, do I infer correctly that you would agree that that would make America better off, and not worse off if they did that? Because if you concede that, then your entire case in the OP of saying this is somehow putting America last is defeated.

Are people better off learning a skill, working and saving and delaying gratification until they can purchase property they need or desire?

Or are they better off having what they need handed to them with no real effort on their part, due to policies of monetary tomfuckery and government chicanery?

 

[Anti Federalist]

The globalist cheap labor crowd is worse than Old Man Potter in "It's A Wonderful Life".



Potter would squeeze every dime out of the people through usury, would allow vice and corruption to overrun what was a functioning small town.

Not a benevolent or wise man by any means.

But even Potter wasn't willing to go so far as to gut the place like a squid, import half a million Nigerians and Trashcanistanis to work for pennies a day, short sell the stock of the last remaining businesses then sell the bones off to communist Chinese.

 

[Invisible Man]

Are people better off learning a skill, working and saving and delaying gratification until they can purchase property they need or desire?

Or are they better off having what they need handed to them with no real effort on their part, due to policies of monetary tomfuckery and government chicanery?

They are only better off with that skill if it is to produce something. That product that is made is what makes the skill valuable. The "job" is not an end unto itself. It's a means to an end.

If they can get that product without using their labor to make it, or by using less labor, and then have more time left over to use on other things, producing even more of other products, then they would be better off for it.

 

[ClaytonB]

Ideally it would be nice if Ford was building all these trucks here with parts made here by people employed here . Reallity is govt has meddled in business to the point everything becomes very complicated. First thing I would do to encourage more mnfg is gut govt regulations.

What makes a country able to be the "_____ market leader" is its market-competitiveness. Market-competitiveness doesn't come from sheer elbow grease (it can, but not usually), rather, it comes from strong private-property rights, and free exchange. So, the US is suffering the utterly predictable consequences of eroding private-property rights and impeding exchange for well over a century. They have been squandering the very reputation-capital ("brand-power") of "American". "Made in America" once used to command respect in the world outside the US but has now become a laughing-stock with few exceptions.

I could list countless contributory causes (this is truly death by a trillion-papercuts), but I think a particularly symbolic one is the death of Craigslist. The origin-story of Craigslist is a true success story of good old-fashioned American independent spirit and entrepreneurialism. But like every other such market, the vice-dogs were sent sniffing and they found they could shop illicit things on CL (cue shock, horror, surprise.) Then came the regulations, restrictions, tracking, registration, and every other trapping of socialism that is justified in the name of "morality". So, the very same Republic establishment that constantly cries "we need free markets" is also the very same establishment that sends the morality-hounds to shut down the free market. And then we wonder why our jobs and manufacturing are being gutted and shipped overseas...

 

[Anti Federalist]

The are only better off with that skill if it is to produce something. That product that is made is what makes the skill valuable.

F250s are incredibly useful and valuable.

Making them is a process which adds value and enhances the good of the individual and the society in which he lives.

That is real wealth creation, not the smoke and oakum of the clown economy.

The "job" is not an end unto itself. It's a means to an end.

I disagree.

A man is defined by his work, spending a lifetime to perfect a skill to create wealth and prosperity for himself and his family and country is what anchors a man.

One of the reasons why we are up to our ears, like so many tribbles, in soy boy fagggots and limp wristed, helpless half men, is because that has been taken away from them, in exchange for four or eight or twelve years of Marxism indoctrination and Grundy-esque misandry in "college".

If they can get that product without using their labor to make it, or by using less labor, and then have more time left over to use on other things, producing even more of other products, then they would be better off for it.

No, they won't and this lockdown bullshit proves it.

People will take the easy way out, sure.

But they will NOT strive on to blaze new trails of science and building and discovery and industry.

They'll watch pr0n in the dark and eat Cheetos.

 

[RJB]

+Rep. There is an economic imortance to this of course, but also, you can't overlook that this is a fight for the soul of this country as well.

F250s are incredibly useful and valuable.

Making them is a process which adds value and enhances the good of the individual and the society in which he lives.

That is real wealth creation, not the smoke and oakum of the clown economy.



I disagree.

A man is defined by his work, spending a lifetime to perfect a skill to create wealth and prosperity for himself and his family and country is what anchors a man.

One of the reasons why we are up to our ears, like so many tribbles, in soy boy fagggots and limp wristed, helpless half men, is because that has been taken away from them, in exchange for four or eight or twelve years of Marxism indoctrination and Grundy-esque misandry in "college".



No, they won't and this lockdown bullshit proves it.

People will take the easy way out, sure.

But they will NOT strive on to blaze new trails of science and building and discovery and industry.

They'll watch pr0n in the dark and eat Cheetos.

 

[Invisible Man]

F250s are incredibly useful and valuable.

Making them is a process which adds value and enhances the good of the individual and the society in which he lives.

Absolutely. So the Mexicans making F250s for us are adding value to our economy. And if they're doing it at less cost than if we had Americans make them, using labor that those Americans could instead put toward other things the Mexicans can't do as well, then we're better off letting the Mexicans make them for us.

It's the F250s, and not the jobs, that add value to the economy. The jobs are a cost not a benefit.

 

[Invisible Man]

..

 

[phill4paul]

..

So Americans can buy Fords through government funding of Basic Income? Because unless you have a job and that pays, well...Awesome! Gimme mine now!

 

[cjm]

It's the F250s, and not the jobs, that add value to the economy. The jobs are a cost not a benefit.

Value is subjective, so depending on how that value is defined, you and AF can both be right.

Relocating the F250 plant is not a problem* though, it's a symptom of the problem of severely distorted markets and a fraudulent monetary system.


*depends on how one defines "problem"

 

[Madison320]

Presumably, it will cost less for them to make it than it will for Americans.

I'm still trying to understand how that's bad for America.

Is this based on some kind of outlook where jobs are a scarce resource that are an end unto itself, and if somebody else does more work that leaves less work to be done by us, and we then suffer for the lack of work for us to do?

I gather you would have been a signer of Bastiat's candlemakers' petition too?
http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html

Edit: Let's say it was like you just said though. Suppose "the Mexicans" were just going to give us F-250s. Since you put it that way, do I infer correctly that you would agree that that would make America better off, and not worse off if they did that? Because if you concede that, then your entire case in the OP of saying this is somehow putting America last is defeated.

The idea of comparative advantage is that each country makes stuff that they are good at and then you trade and everyone is better off. But that's not what's happening in general in the US. Because of our bloated government we're at a disadvantage making just about everything. The proof of this is in our record trade deficits. So we're using the fact that we own the reserve currency and we're printing money and trading it for real stuff. So yeah, it's a great deal for us in the short run because we're getting actual stuff in return for worthless pieces of paper. But in the long run we're in trouble when the rest of the world stops taking that paper.

The solution is not to erect trade barriers, the solution is to shrink the size of government so that our businesses can compete.