LOL, good to see you made the best choice [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

And the profits go over seas. And the reason no US company built a plant in Mississippi is that US companies don't need the extra production capacity as they are losing market share. So I guess this is no suprise.

 

good, Bryce. I'm happy to see you are proud of how you will ignore the facts or jump to judgement based soley on what country manufactured a product. While you're stubborness and 'matter of fact' posts on every subject in the world has annoyed me in the past, I do not hold ill feelings for someone I've never met.

I'm confused, you were touting the reliability of the Bombardier sleds before. That's not good enough? You could not find 2 XLTs in 1999? That is hard to believe. However, I can tell you from owning a monoblock XLT you made a better choice. Polaris had a better CVT, but that engine had its issues. The Ultra touring would have been more like the GT700. You really should have looked at the Yamaha Venture too!!

Can anyone tell me how much of the 85% US/CANADA content on an F150 or Silverado is actually American?

 

No surprise, but a GREAT benefit to the people there. And even though some profits go to Japan, and France, far MORE money stays in the US in the form of parts suppliers, line workers, management, benefits, employment taxes, corporate income taxes, dealerships, salesman, service workers, etc. It is an over simplification to state that profits go over seas and leave it at that. Because something is being produced, there are economic gains. And again, MUCH of those profits are reinvested here.

 

If that is the case, then why did you respond so viciously in this Thread?

No, I could not find two XLTs in 99. However, my friends that have the 600 Turing sled have had great reliability. And if you knew anything about the Skidoo 700 triple, you would know the early engines had serious crank lube problems that had to be updated. But I was not complaining about the 700 SE, I was complaining that I could not find the Polaris XLTs.

But then again, somehow once again you have gotten us off the subject of why buy American. It seems to be a typical tactic of yours because you are unable to ague as to why we should not buy American. Why don't you offer us your "solution". It seems that I have offered a solution to a problem that you in fact identified. You suggested in that post that we are only complaining and offered no solution. So why don't you follow your own advice; quit complaining and offer us a solution?

 

And herein lies the problem. We have pretty much proven the fact that it is better to buy from US automakers; even your document suggests that. Now if US consumers bought autos from the US companies, then even more money would stay in the US because it was a US industry. So please don't use the argument that not TOO MUCH MONEY goes off shore. And much of the money for the plants came from the investment from States that provided tax relief. In effect, we paid for the building of these plants owned by off shore companies!!

Anyone can research "US TRADE DEFICIT" and see that it is a growing problem. And the top two trade deficit countries are China and Japan. So anyone that thinks that he is helping the US economy by buying autos from the manufacturers of these countries is in for a rude awaking. The fact is, and everyone knows it, we cannot continue with this trade deficit. At some point, foreign investers are going to get tired of paying for our trade deficit.

 

In a free society steeped in capitalism, we are free to buy as we wish. Apparently, more people in the US have taken to the fact that they are better off to buy the product that best fits their needs. This HAS IN FACT kept inflation at bay. Simply saying buy American DOESN"T WORK as proved by your statement above. Hovever, since you WILL NOT change the behavior of our citizens as a whole, our US companies better step it up and compete since we are in a free market. This brings me right back where I started. Many US companies have sat back on their laurels watching their market share fade, their expenses rise, and their profits fall. I'm sorry, I don't agree that we should blindly support an American company that is struggling more and more to compete.

It is very easy to argue that the fact that GM is struggling because of import competition, that they will be forced to build a stronger company through better more innovative products, and learn to operate more efficiently. It sucks, but, they will need a better deal with UAW. That means, they will lose some medical benefits and lose some (more) jobs. This is simply part of competition. PArt of this strategy will need to be getting their high paid lobbyists on the hill to get congress to force open some more markets. The other part will be building more cars that have the kind of appeal to steal market back from Toyota and Honda.

Take this as you will. But, it IS the basic law of economics...

 

That is not vicious, and I'm not holding those feelings, I let them go. I snapped (after you shadowed me and talked nonsense on 2 other posts) as I read the thread you pointed out here, bashing anything other than 750 pound quads, a thinly veiled attack of anything other than Polaris. I never brought those posts into this post.

Nonsense, I was asking you why you didn't buy American sleds. You said we should buy what we don't want rather than buy foreign.

I won't because I'm not a know it all economist, like some posters. The economists (not alarmist) say it is not a good thing to resort to nativism. Stammerman is not an economist.

China doesn't make autos buddy, and Germany is 3rd while Canada is fourth. So don't buy anything from them either.

Anyone answer how much American content is in that 85% US/CANADA content yet?

 

I'm guessing 85% [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] I assume that you didn't mean to post that 85%...

You are correct, the people that are in the know all agree that it is not a good isea to take a protectionist attitude. Plus, it really isn't the American way. We are better than that and we should step up and compete globally.

But, another reason for the deficit is countries like China simply don't have the money to buy foriegn products yet. They will once their economy grows to a level to support buying imports. Like it or not, we will help them grow and eventually, their labor cost will go up and export prices will increase. Don't get me wrong, I hate Communist governments. At the same time, the more inroads we make, the more Westernized they will become. Beats the hell out of another cold war...

 

It seems like both of you guys need a lesson in buying off shore, since neither of you understand the implications of buying Canadia or Mexican versus China or Japan. Lets look at the figures.

China exports 53 billion and imports 9 from US for a total trade of 62 billion and deficit of 44 billion
Japan exports 35 billion and imports 12 from US for a total trade of 47 billion and a deficit of 23 billion
Canada exports 72 billion and imports 51 from US for a total trade of 123 billion and a deficit of 22 billion
Mexico exports 41 billion and imports 28 from US for a total trade of 69 billion and a deficit of 13 billion

China's resulting deficit is 70% of their trade with the US
Japan's resulting deficit is 49% of their trade with the US
Canada's resulting deficit is 18% of their trade with the US
Mexico's resulting deficit is 19% of their trade with the US

From these numbers, the last countries in the world that we want to buy anything from is Japan and China because they are for all practical purposes money holes! Canada and Mexico on the other hand are excellent trading partners because our trade is quite balanced from them.

So anytime anyone suggests that it is just as good to buy from Honda, Toyota or Nissan because many of the US automakers build in Mexico and Canada, you can feel confident in telling them they don't know what they are talking about. Because most of the dollars we send to Canada or Mexico will come back. Very little of the dollars we send to Japan or China will come back.

Let me put it in a way that might be easier to understand:

For every dollar we send to China, we get 17 cents back.
For every dollar we send to Japan, we get 34 cents back.
For every dolar we send to Canada, we get 71 cents back.
For every dollar we send to Mexico, we get 68 cents back.

It is clear that we get very little back when we buy from either China or Japan. Since some US automakers make cars and trucks exclusively in Canada and Mexico, we can feel comfortable in knowing that even if we buy those vehicles, we are sending significantly less dollars off shore than if we bought from Nissan, Honda or Toyota.

This is one of the main reasons that anyone in the know are upset with Japan and China.

So another myth of the people with off-shore-itis put to rest [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]