Behold the wheel and bow and arrow. Try to keep that from going 'round the world. And Detroit..it is a tragedy, but plenty of thought to go around. Management was greedy and uncaring, but unions had big chip and did not maintain quality. (I have worked for teamsters AND in the corporate world.) China is beginning to reap the whirlwind as some get rich and others now cannot find work. Remember, to do business in China foreign companies have to provide so called "technology transfer," or "show me how you make it"...So the stuff will get better like other Asian product.
JohR, Yep I used to think Briggs were throw aways, but once I fixed the quality lapses ole Intek is still doing its thing since 2004.
The problem goes like this.
Currently China is bending over backwards to develope a big manufacturing industry, offering all sorts of incentiveves that a non authoritarian government can match.
However once a local factory has closed down it will never reopen unless a rich benefactor can be found.( or you can convince the government to foot the bill )
This is because "shareholders money" can make a no risk return importing for almost no cost on a very quick turn around as comparred to the massive risk of setting up an expensive fatory to make a mower on the hope it will be successful in the market place and a long term turn around.
If you had $ 200,000,000 to invest which would you preferr to put your money into
1) a mower factory that might give you a return of 10% to 30% pa in a few years time which employs several hundred people, or
2) a lot of different items of trash products that will return you 200% profit in less than 3 months and employs a dozen or so people.
It is really a no brainer if your only motive is raw profit.
The long term outcome is falling employment and lots of unemployed on benefits.
Even worse is the "rip off" products steal the good will of main line companies who do the hard yards and maintain an inventory of spare parts in very expensive warehouses and distribution networks.
They do this by ensuring Honda consummable parts will also fit their engines so they make all the profit from selling the complete engine and Honda makes the loss by long term supplying the spare parts needed to keep the engine running.
When we had a regulated importing regime down here, distributors had to maintain adequate spares for eninges for a prescribed number of years. This put a brake on what was economic to import and basically better quality goods were imported to reduce the amount of "dead" inventory required to keep them running.
Both your government & our government run this idiot line about transferring to a "service" economy.
The problem with this is a "service economy" does not create wealth . just like a TAX it simply transferrs money from one pocket to another, there is no net increase in value.
Real wealth only comes from doing something to an item that makes it worth more money.
This can be writing code to make a computer do a job better or turning a lump of rocks into metal and metal into a mower.
Increasing quality of living can only be accomplished by inceasing real wealth, not by simple transferring of wealth from one pocket to another.
Had your current government not pumped billions into the motor industry Ric would not be salivating about the new Ford truck because Ford will be owned by Win Wan enterprises and be assembling Woo Hoo trucks that are too expensive to ship fully assembled.
While it seem great to save $ 500 on a motor for your plow that is not much of a saving whn comparred to the $ 60,000 your children did not make this year because they could not find a job for over 12 months. Or the $ 40,000 difference beteen what they made working at the mower factory and what they make flipping burgers at the local take away.