Sure is sad about the layoffs at Chrylser in Fenton.....?

Question

But hey! The union has been warning their workers about this for years! "Dont buy products from China!"

Yet, my neighbors,who both who work at chrysler, unloads bags after bags of wal mart bags from their car every friday evening, whats wrong with that picture! I'm 50, never been to a wal mart, yet I get by fine! I said it years ago, all our jobs will be over seas at minimum wages.... And I was laughed at! Oh yes, I was raised union.........Parents and Grandparents were union also, never stepped inside a walley world in their life either!

Answer 1

I'm 57 and I agree with both of you...Americans need to buy American, and corporate greed and stupidity has put us in this economic mess.  I was with Boatmen's Bank, which was acquired then merged, and the job I did is now outsourced to India.  My son is in IT, and two of his jobs were outsourced to other countries.  If this trend continues, who will be employed and able to buy the products sold in this country.  My sister's best friend's husband is one of the Chrysler guys, and she moans about him losing his job, while driving her Toyota.  I drive a Mustang, myself.  

This economy hurts all of us.  I do shop at Wal Mart when I buy things for my grandchildren who live in another state.  The only store we have in common in Wal Mart because they live in a very rural area.  Then if I send something they have or something that doesn't fit, their mother can return it.  But it isn't just Wal Mart.  Try to find American made clothing or shoes or electronics.  Go to the Mall or Target, or almost anywhere else, and all you'll find are foreign made products.

We need our manufacturing sector to come back to this country, but they'd have to pay people more than $1.17 an hour, so that's not likely to happen.

Answer 2

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

I read an article two to three years ago about how car manufacturers were going to focus more on trucks and SUVs and get rid of the midsized and compact car.  This just blew me away.

Illinois produces 40% of the corn for ethanol and I know farmers who did not plant as many crops this year as they could have. Deliberately. To drive up corn prices to make more money.  Ah supply and demand.  It's working, but worse, we have corn fields flooded out so that means even less corn unless they can get it dry to plant more before its too late.

You say buy American, but Americans want to get rich.

Look at the Pentagon when they gave that big contract bid to France's AirBus over Boeing for jet refuels.  Our own department of defense isn't even buying American! (I know they're looking at the appeal, but still.)

And the problem is we've gotten so spoiled and used to Chinese product we cannot eliminate them from our economy.

It's easy to say "Buy American" but not so easy to do when

A. You can't find c**p made in America

B. Mostly it is c**p

C. Its waaaay more expensive

With gas, food prices and inflation all on the rise, it hurts to try and buy American.

Answer 3

It is fantastic that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Job loss in any sense is a sad situation.

Answer 4

Let's put the blame where blame is due here on what happened to the American car companys.

Decisions were made at the corporate level to cast off the car division in favor of trucks and SUVs. They have done nothing to prod Washington into expanding E-85 into more locations and to move to a fuel cell based car/truck which if I'm not mistaken they hold the exclusive patents on.

Now gas is 4 and climbing and those decisions have trucks and SUVs rusting on car dealerships across the US. 9 out of 10 Americans probably can't even name an American car model.

There isn't one person sitting on a board at Chrysler/GM/Ford that should keep their jobs. This is identical to the same thing that happened in the early seventies when OPEC flexed their muscle. Blind greed put them right back where they were 35 years ago.

Sadly a lot of people are going to lose jobs because of this decision. I'm 51. When I was a kid there was no way anybody thought GM would be number two in the world to a Japanese car manufacturer.

I can see your point about Wal Mart however decisions by the decision makers at high levels that put the US car companys where they are today. I don't see Wal Mart as the bigger problem here.