One more comment. I've spent some time on college campuses, part of (4) college educations for my children. To look at the faces of college students, you would think that the USA does a pretty good job of educating the world. We have the ability to export technology one way or another. There are also high tech green card visas available for companies to import brain power as needed. It is a small rock floating in space.
Jim P... if your question about knowing Mr. Paul Berkbile was directed to me, then I am sorry to say I did not know him.
Naveen R... I do not blame other countries in trying to created work for their citizens, I wish our government would do the same and in some ways they have. The Germans, Koreans, and Japanese auto companies have built factories in this county that have created good paying manufacturing jobs for Americans. Unfortunately in many cases once American corporations build plants overseas for the overseas market they decide to shut down their American factories and just ship the product back here. Here in Virginia we used to have a healthy furniture and textile manufacturing base. All that is pretty much gone now with the textile going to India and the furniture to China.
A few years ago 60 minutes news show had the CEO of Ping Golf Clubs singing the blues. Ping moved their manufacturing to China to make more money. Someone at the Ping factory in China decided to take the Ping Clubs and start making them and selling them on ebay as "PINGS". China does not seem to think that copy write laws, patents, or the such need to be honored and anything goes. Hard to feel sorry the the PING CEO...
When GE built the new Loco plant in Texas I believe Erie's days were numbered. Maybe Texas will survive the new plant in India, I hope they do, but GE is all about the cash and I guess time will tell.
PW53,
Companies like PING and Sylvania dealing in 3rd world countries get exactly what they deserve, of course if the USA Corp tax situation did not exist, none of this would be happening at all. I will never purchase another light bulb from Sylvania and gave my Ping Pro American made Golf Clubs to my brother. Many people do not realize that Sylvania, Pa is now a Ghost Town here on Rt 6, leaving thousands without jobs, and stealing the retirements of generational employees with Sylvania's move over seas.
However GE has always been a world wide Corp, and as you say money has always been their bottom line. Hope the workers in the GE Erie Engine Plant are better taken care of than those who worked for Sylvania.
PCRR/Dave
Originally Posted by PW53inVa:
A few years ago 60 minutes news show had the CEO of Ping Golf Clubs singing the blues. Ping moved their manufacturing to China to make more money. Someone at the Ping factory in China decided to take the Ping Clubs and start making them and selling them on ebay as "PINGS". China does not seem to think that copy write laws, patents, or the such need to be honored and anything goes. Hard to feel sorry the the PING CEO...
As someone who plays and collects guitars, I know a little about how this works out. In the countries where these products are being made, the copyright law that's enjoyed in the US for example does not apply in a lot of the Asian countries.
They will reverse engineer a Martin acoustic guitar, build an exact copy (maybe not the same quality of wood) and sell it with a name on the headstock identical in look to Martin.
Same goes for Rickenbacker, Gibson, Fender, et al. These guitars are made there and sell quite well due to the prices being so low, and if you can figure out shipping channels, can even get them sent to the US.
But their copyright system is virtually non existent, so a US brand is wide open for copying.
I even have a battery operated train set from China that uses an emblem on the box dangerously close to one Lionel used.
Mike,
You bring up an interesting point about universities. It is not just US companies who wanted to make money in India. Even the universities wanted a piece of that pie. Growing up in India we would see newspaper ads from US universities who would rent banquet halls in posh local hotels to promote their education programs to attract international students who would pay the higher out-of-state tuition, as some of these were lesser ranked public universities. At that time, US universities had an edge since the immigration policies seemed to be in-sync with the universities that needed to attract talented students or students willing to pay more, unlike some universities from other countries that also promoted their programs. US had a well-defined path to citizenship for graduates with advanced technical degrees.
Some universities in Germany around late 90s decided that wanted a piece of this pie but German immigration policies were against immigration. Some of these German universities even started offering graduate engineering degrees in English to attract students as English was a popular medium of instruction in India. But after a few years after Indian students started returning from Germany after completing their studies since Germany wouldn’t let them join the workforce, the popularity of German universities waned when students & their parents realized that they only wanted the money Indians could spend, not the people.
I don’t blame US universities either. During my time as a student here in the US & later, I have experienced states cutting budgets for public universities. Sure they raised the tuition but apparently not enough to offset the lost funding from the sates. In the beginning universities would give excuses that international or out-of-state students were admitted since they were more qualified but few years ago one of the highest ranked public universities, here in IL publicly acknowledged that if the state continued to cut funding for higher-education then they might be forced to favor out-of-state students over in-state students. That would suck for parents & potential students who have been paying state taxes for years.
These are just my opinion,
Thanks,
Naveen Rajan
Originally Posted by Mike CT:
One more comment. I've spent some time on college campuses, part of (4) college educations for my children. To look at the faces of college students, you would think that the USA does a pretty good job of educating the world. We have the ability to export technology one way or another. There are also high tech green card visas available for companies to import brain power as needed. It is a small rock floating in space.
Believe I heard in the news yesterday that General Motors will be importing Cadillacs (or was it Buicks) made in China, which were made there as part of a trade agreement with China, into the United States. Think I will just stick with my American made Japanese and German cars.
Originally Posted by mark s:
Believe I heard in the news yesterday that General Motors will be importing Cadillacs (or was it Buicks) made in China, which were made there as part of a trade agreement with China, into the United States. Think I will just stick with my American made Japanese and German cars.
Buicks.
