24 Years since 1979

[GTSteve]

Ouch Kirby:
Now you seem to be expanding your negative comments to include everyone YOUNGER than you. FYI, I wasn't even ALIVE during most of history yet I COMPREHEND what happened.

Lighten up.

[TripleJackInGA]

So because of my age I cannot understand what happened in the past? You're diluted if you believe such a thing.
My comments about Germans were aimed at pointing out how YOU are protraying them, and that is obvious to anyone who read my post.
As for the jobs, do you really believe that if there never was a buyout (not really a merger) which ended up with a foreign, in this case German, management, that there would not have been any layoffs? I'm sure you, and perhaps many others think that, but if you think rationally, you will see that it would have happened no matter who was at the healm.
I am not trying to draw attention to myself for any reason other than to question why YOU are always such an ardent critic of DCX, and everything involved with it.Yes, your topic was one about past history, and it was a good topic, but as usual, you tainted it by spinning in your version of a villian, namely DCX in it's current form.That's where I took issue with your post.

Nice to see you went back and edited your last post after a couple of people responded to it.
If they want to send my job overseas for whatever reason, then that's their perogative.Do I like my job? Yes.Do I have some sort of 'right' to my job? No. If they choose to send my job over the border to save money, then that's life and there are other jobs.
And like I said before about my use of the words 'Hun' and 'Crouts', it was used to show how rediculous your previous post had been.I know it, you know it, and anyone else who read it knows it.
So now you're free to go back and edit any other posts so you look better.

[Kirby]

quote:Originally posted by GTSteve

Ouch Kirby:
Now you seem to be expanding your negative comments to include everyone YOUNGER than you. FYI, I wasn't even ALIVE during most of history yet I COMPREHEND what happened.

Lighten up.

Steve,
My comments about comprehension were for the young man in Georgia that works for a German company. He obviously has no comprehension of what this event has to do with anything in his selfish life. This show of his may impress his employers, not me.

There are more than a few Germans that feel that Americans are ignorant. I remember that their current chancelor was elected on an anti-American platform.

As my relatives told me when I was young, I could read about the great depression, but unless you lived it you could not really understand it. So it is with the depressed time when Detroit was litterally closing it's doors. The drive and determination of a very few stubborn men saved Chrysler from the chopping block. If you did not live through those times it is hard to communicate how devastated many families were.

If we gloss over our history, or fail to understand the lessons, we will get the same painful lessons again!

[TripleJackInGA]

I'm not here to make a show for anyone, Kirby.I'm responding to comments by you that I feel were very mis-directed for your own reasons.
And how does any of this have to do with my '...selfish life.' ? Nothing I have said has been said to benefit me, make me look good, etc. What I have said is aimed at debunking your allegations that DCX is the root of all evil.I feel that I made my point, regardless of what you want to think in Kirby-land.
Wether or not Germans as a whole feel that Americans are ignorant isn't an issue, nor do I think that it's true.We aren't talking about Geo-Politics here, we're talking about a business.
You're right, no-one knows first-hand what exactly happened in any instance in histiry unless they lived through it, but you went on to push blame on DCX's current situation in regards to it's employees and the American populous on the fact that DCX is now managed for the most part by a foreign company.It's perfectly fine to have your view,and certainly your right to express it, but why not state it clearly instead of masking it behind other topics?

[Kirby]

Triple,
You brought out your own selfish points: that closing down factories and laying off workers was inevetable, American workers(you too) have no particular right to a job, that American companies would have to be crazy to pay American wages when they can get it done cheaper in Mexico. In a factory town, for your information, when thousands of people are put out of a job, they cannot just find another, as you say. (Just try to sell a home in a factory town when unemployment is 30 or 40%). Here's an Idea: how about bussing all those unemployed families (thousands) to your little town, they would probably work for much lower wages than a lot of the established town folks. Massive unemployment hasn't happened in your little corner of Georgia. Saving and growing segments of American Maifacturing IS a big deal (to America), but not to multinational companies. They will ever be as loyal to Mexico, as to Brazil, as to Canada, as to America. That is why I say that your comments show a lack of understanding.

[Kirby]

The very reason that I brought this topic up originally, was not to necessarily BASH Daimler Chrysler, but to remind some people that there was a time when, in stead of fighting to stand up for the companies right to put people out of work, we had some leaders that actually stood up for keeping jobs, and did not let things pass easily into the night. I would guess that those people seemed pretty "ignorant" to the Germans.

Make no mistake...Daimler Chrysler is about to lay off American workers again. This is a big deal.

"I got my job , let those guys just find another." was not the slogan of the day in 1979. Reguardless of what you think, American families are not multinationals. They do not travel to fill the jobs opened when a new Central American plant opens. These are your neighbors, with kids in school that will someday be our future. Leadership that finds a way to keep our manifacturing jobs in America, for Americans is what is missing. We all need to understand how important it is, even if you think your own little corner of Georgia is an island unto itself.

[TripleJackInGA]

Nothing I have said, nor what you just cited is 'selfish'.I made points based on facts.Some of those facts are not what people want to hear like job cuts in some cases are inevitable, and if given the choice, most large manufacturers will shift jobs out of the country for cheaper wages,nor that no-one has a 'right' to a job, but they are facts none the less.
I do see your point about a specific area having problems and it having an impact on the entire town, but it still doesn't mean that I or anyone else would some kind of right to keep their job.Besides, I wasn't arguing the tragedy of job losses, I was debating your insinuation that it was due as a direct result of the ;merger' with Benz.
And just to show YOUR lack of understanding, I live in an extremely poor county in GA.In the entire county, which is the 4th largest (geographically), we have only 8 Sherrif's Deputies to cover all shifts in the whole county.The AVERAGE house value is $111,000,the Per Capita income is only $21,000, and we have over 400 miles of dirt roads.So I do know a thing or two about living in a depressed area.

Correction:I mis-spoke.The average home value in my county is $66,000.$111,000 is the average for the State.Per Capita income is only $15k.

[Kirby]

I'm sure you read the trade papers and reports, since you know more about Chrysler than I ever will. The decision for the last 26,000 jobs lost came directly from Germany. (Where are all the Viper engineers? Fired! Check the new Ford GT engineering list for some of them.) Because you are so well read, you must know that many analysts questioned the closing of the Plymouth brand for anything other than a short term profit (they are now past the profit spike, and have a major hole in their product lineup for "Affordable Transportation" (read that: a Value Line)

I have been through your town, and it makes your statement about job loss even more ludicrous. Do you know what even 20,00 jobs lost means. 20,000 employees without income
80,000 family members without income
100,000 ancillary and service jobs lost
400,000 their family members without income
This is not a devestated town, it is a whole region.

When multinationals cut jobs for profit - shareholders benefit, America loses. Plain and simple.

Like I said much earlier in this thread:
Good Guy / Bad Guy - depends on your perspective.

You seem to be rooting for the shareholders, the majority of whom are not American.

[TripleJackInGA]

I am not 'rooting' for anyone, Kirby.I am merely stating the facts as they pertain to operation of a business.
Yes, things do depend on your perspective, and if you were in a place other than the Detroit area, how are you to know your perspective wouldn't change?

And I seriously doubt you have been through my town, besides I was speaking about an entire county, not just one town.Our county has never even had ONE major manufacturing corporation in it, so not only do we not have those jobs now, we never have!

[Kirby]

Do yourself a favor, since you have chosen to be a Chrysler officinato: watch this next round of layoffs, where they are, and imagine what just 1/10th of that job loss would mean to your little community.

And yes I have been through your town, on 74, about 35 or 40 mi south of Atlanta(We pronounced it Hotlanta), not recently, and no I did not stop.