[qwikz28]

Originally Posted by NJSPEEDER

ok, where does the money end up?
labor accounts for about 40% of producing an automobile. figure half of the car parts or the actual assembly is done in the US, so there goes 20% of the price.
now let's look at who serves on the boards of these companies. they are nearly all american business men, the biggest stock holders, most of them are american investment firms. hell, the president of toyota is an american adn former employee of GM who still lists himself as an american citizen and considers his primary residence his property in california. so there goes 3/4 ofthe profit on a new car back to the US, average production margain being around 14%, we will be kind and call that another 9%.
parts and materials production world wide is dominated by who? GM of course. with a labor expense of 40%, a profit margain of 14%, and GM holding more than 50% of the world materials, parts, and automotive patent markets we can see where mot of the money really does end up, right back here in the US.
the problem isn't where the money goes any more. it is image. he foreign companies are very slow to admit where their products are really getting designed and built because of the image of the american worker, not because of any actual lack of ability or willingness to put in a solid day.
GM has more technology in their pockets right now than most of the companies will roll out in the next 5 years, but they need to turn around the image of their brands before it is of any use at all.

i have stock in GM and ford. both posted profits last quarter