The Glade 4.0

There is not enough demand for labor in the United States to support the economic situation you guys want, Taskiss. Also, any comparison to China's workforce and labor economy is ludicrous at the absolute best, the vast majority of Chinese are actually slaves with a ridiculous high suicide rate that live in prison like dorms. Before there can be any meaningful comparison of the American workforce and the Chinese workforce, you have to discuss the human rights conditions behind them.

Our human rights cost money.

That said, the vast majority of Americans are an inferior product themselves. In some respects, our government is to blame, but mostly it's your generation, Taskiss. The Baby Boomers rode the coattails of their parents; they passed along a progressive American Dream that included every increasing accumulation of wealth, status, and economic stability to their children. Except, the Baby Boomers by and large told their children they were entitled to the greener grass on the other side of the fence. They left out an important lesson while teaching their children to be special little snowflakes who are all awesome and unique ...

If you want that greener grass, you better bust *** and work for it, because the only way to get the greener grass is to earn it yourself.

As to one other point, General Motors and Chrysler Group are considered the two world car manufacturers in the world according to Consumer's Digest's 2013 Automotive Buyer's Guide. Neither manufactures a single recommendable vehicle for sale in the developed world. Ford, on the other hand, has a Eurospec Fusion that made it onto the recommended mid-size list. And the F-Series pickups are still the best selling vehicles on the planet, without question.

Ford didn't take Obama's money.

If you want that greener grass, you better bust *** and work for it, because the only way to get the greener grass is to earn it yourself.

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Ford didn't take Obama's money.

Not doing enough work is not a problem here, no matter how much people like to complain about it. My dad runs the US operations of a German manufacturing company, so he has experience in managing people both here and there, and he constantly marvels to me at how much Americans let themselves get "exploited." "Last month we had a machine break down. That means it takes longer to make parts to fill an order. What do we do in the states? We just tell two of our salaried guys that they have to stay two or three hours longer every day and get it done. I don't have to pay them more for this. Americans accept working more for free. If I did this over in Germany, they'd **** laugh at me. I might end up in the local paper being called a slaver."

Additional notes: The bailout wasn't Obama's. He just continued it. It was Shrub's idea, and he started it. It's just that Shrub and Obamessiah are cut from different colored sections of the same cloth.



Worse for me, George W. Barak Bush-Obama managed to convince our "conservative" PM Stephen Harper to, per capita, give a much bigger bailout than America did. The bailout to GM and Chrysler was 80% USA, 20% Canada (despite Canada's population and economy being 1/10th the size of the USA.)

Saving General Motors from bankruptcy was among President Obama’s most frequently cited achievements when he ran for re-election last year. Democrats everywhere touted the company’s revival as proof of the 2009 bailout’s wisdom. That was then. Now, Obama has quietly released the auto manufacturer from a bailout requirement that it increase its production in the U.S. Instead, GM is spending billions of dollars building up its production capacity in ... China.

This is happening despite the fact that the Treasury Department has to date recovered just $36 billion of its original $51 billion loan to GM. By most analysts’ predictions, American taxpayers will be out approximately $10 billion when the remaining stock is sold off. Which is a long way of saying that it now appears that taxpayers paid $10 billion to make it easier for GM to accelerate its foreign outsourcing and send more manufacturing jobs to China.

Here’s what happened: In exchange for the bailout in 2009, GM promised to meet certain domestic car production targets over the next four years. The obvious point of this stipulation was to ensure that GM jobs remained here at home and weren't shipped overseas. The production targets started at 1.8 million in 2010 and were supposed to rise to 2.26 million by 2014. GM repeatedly missed the targets, beginning with an 81,000-unit shortfall the first year. Production increased thereafter, but never quite enough to meet the targets. Last year, GM fell about 13,000 cars short of its 2 million target.

How did it do this year? GM refuses to say. But in February, GM announced in its annual report to shareholders that Treasury had agreed to “irrevocably waive certain of its rights” regarding the federal loan. These included “certain manufacturing volume requirements.” Guess what happened next? GM announced in June that it would stop releasing its North American production figures altogether. Its spokesman tried to justify this move with Orwellian doublespeak about how providing more information would result in “an incomplete data set to look at.”

The same month, GM announced it would boost its output from its China plants by 70 percent. It is not just selling Chinese-made cars to the Chinese, either. GM is nearly doubling its export production capacity there from 77,000 units to 130,000. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to see what is really going on. GM cannot make the domestic production targets and still turn a profit. It wants to be spared the embarrassment of having everyone know that. Obama, who is in this as deep as anyone can be, doesn’t want the embarrassment, either. So both buried the news.

It is yet more proof that Mitt Romney was right in the 2012 presidential campaign: GM should have gone through a traditional bankruptcy instead of the politicized farce of a taxpayer-funded bailout and government managed “bankruptcy.” The TARP funds involved could have instead been used to provide liquidity for a managed sale to a private buyer that minimized the opportunities for political interference in the new GM’s operations.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

And about Ford...



Yo, X. Figure out what this quote really means and your life will change for the better.

As to one other point, General Motors and Chrysler Group are considered the two world car manufacturers in the world according to Consumer's Digest's 2013 Automotive Buyer's Guide. Neither manufactures a single recommendable vehicle for sale in the developed world. Ford, on the other hand, has a Eurospec Fusion that made it onto the recommended mid-size list. And the F-Series pickups are still the best selling vehicles on the planet, without question.

Ford didn't take Obama's money.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Toyota Prius Four
Honda Fit (base)
Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE
Scion xD
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Prius V Three
Toyota Camry LE (4-cyl.)
Subaru Impreza Premium
Scion xB
Honda Accord LX (4-cyl.)

BMW 750Li
Jaguar XJL Portfolio
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara
Nissan Armada Platinum
Ford Explorer XLT
Lincoln MKX (3.7)
Cadillac Escalade (base)
Dodge Journey Crew
Volvo C70 T5 AT
Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Wagon Ford C-MAX Hybrid SE 83
Small car Ford Focus SE SFE sedan 77
Family sedan Chevrolet Malibu 2LTZ 89
Upscale sedan Chevrolet Impala 2LTZ 95
Luxury sedan Tesla Model S (base, 85 kWh) 99
Sports car Chevrolet Corvette Z06 92
Muscle car Ford Mustang GT Premium (V8) 83
Small SUV Ford Escape Titanium (2.0T) 79
Midsized SUV Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (V6) 77
Large SUV Chevrolet Traverse LT 80
Luxury SUV Buick Enclave CXL 77
Full-sized pickups Ram 1500 Big Horn (V8) 77
Minivan Chrysler Town & Country Touring-L 74

Make & model Overall test score
Tesla Model S (base, 85 kWh) 99
BMW 135i 97
Chevrolet Impala 2LTZ 95
Infiniti G37 (sedan) 95
Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE 93
Audi A6 (3.0T) 93
Infiniti M37 93
Lexus LS 460L 92
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 92
Hyundai Genesis 3.8 (sedan) 92
Toyota Camry XLE (V6) 92
Audi A8 L 91

Make & model Overall test score
Jeep Wrangler Limited 20
Jeep Liberty 27
Smart ForTwo 28
Scion iQ 29
Mitsubishi i-MiEV 31
Chevrolet Spark 34
Toyota FJ Cruiser 36

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Relevant: Why Consumer Reports and J.D. Power are so different

I'm a CR fan, myself.

Because J.D. Power isn't Consumer's Digest, Arathain?

I like neither.

Their sample sizes are usually too small and don't include models in which I'm interested. And neither's methodology is very objective.

Agreed. But there's not a whole lot out there that's objectively better. IMO, you need to do a wider bit of research to narrow down to a select type of vehicle, then you can start getting decent data. If you look broadly, you won't get any usable data.