I wish people would stop defending Ford of today which only shares a name with the great company it once was. Yes, that name used to mean something, but only because there was something behind it that made it great. What we have today is neither great nor worthy of the name. So for the love of god, just stop it.
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@4pue+1shqzUUR The main reason why 1/3 of the workforce is not working is thanks to big government handouts. We have too many welfare recipients, including people able to work.
True story. This guy said he doesn't work for $80 a week, when my uncle told him a company was hiring. My uncle said he doesn't know anyone paying $80 a week because of minimum wage laws. The guy said that if he starts working, he would lose the government handouts, he would have to work 40 hours a week, just to make $80 more than sitting at home doing nothing while receiving money from Uncle Sam.
We also know of some welfare recipients working for cash, not paying taxes, just to get an extra $$ without losing the handouts. It is true that I just have anecdotical experiences, and not the real numbers, but I still think that people are lazy and prefer to game the system than to work hard.
Ford reminds me of Sears....a once great company hobbled by competition, making short term cost cutting decisions that hobble our long term competitiveness. For example, saving a few dollars on transmission components and on qc testing before Fiesta and Focus launch because we had to hit a budget number. How did that work out?
"Then we have the issue of the workforce participation. Less than 2/3 of the able to work population is working."
And why is that, maybe the people can't find a decent job?
@2wdj+1shqzUUR EV fires gonna take the spotlight off the old Pinto finally
@2kbp+1shqzUUR I am not sure that Tesla is going out of business. They are still making money, just not that much. Tesla revenue fell 9% to $21.3 billions in the first quarter of 2024, with a debt of $9.9 billions. For comparison, Ford made $42.7 billions in the same period, but have a debt of $140.3 billions. Yes, Tesla is laying off people, but that's something that Ford does regularly, so I don't see it like the "end" of Tesla.
I agree that Ford has to compete lowering their costs, but before going for lower salaries let's check that $7 billions spent in warranty costs last year. Around $3 billions more than our Detroit competition. Then we have the top heavy organizations with plenty of bureaucrats in them. Then we have the last Union contract, which is extremely uncompetitive. Another issue with the Union is Ford not being able to automate certain tasks in the plant. As you can see, there is a lot of "inefficiencies" already at Ford.
BTW, Chinese could be very patriotic, but that's not the reason they accept lower salaries and long hours. News flash for you, China is a communist country, and as such there is a dictatorship in power, willing to disappear the opposition and their families.
The solution is not in accepting lower wages, just because. The standard of living is high in America for several reasons. One is quality of life. There are more strict procedures and checks here than in cheaper countries. Even Flint water crisis pales in comparison to what passes for "tap water" in many other countries. Then we have so many laws regulating emissions, and making it impossible to build new factories, power plants and refineries. Look at the pictures of American cities in the 70s, lots of smog and health issues.
In second place, and that's where Americans could make strides in, we buy too much of everything. Not only this makes us a big consumer market, but a very profitable one. If Americans would stop buying so much wants, and concentrate only on needs, prices will go down, and with that, the cost of living would go down.
Then we have the issue of the workforce participation. Less than 2/3 of the able to work population is working. This means that less than half of the population is supporting the rest of the population. All those welfare beneficiaries, all those government expenses and jobs, all those pensions are being paid by 40% of the Americans. If we include that bottom 50% of the American workers contribute 3.3% of the taxes, that means around 20% of us pay 97% of those expenses. Of course we are in trouble. Remove the welfare benefits of so many lazy b-ms, and suddenly, we'll have plenty of people willing to work (or commit crimes).
I could go on, but I hope you get the idea that lowering our salaries is not feasible, at least not without changes in government policies and cultural shifts.
Even Tesla is going out of business now.
If Ford wants to remain in business in the USA, they will need to compete with the low cost countries by significantly lowering costs.
Sadly, the only way to keep jobs here is to drastically lower wages. That is the only way to compete with the Chinese.
The Chinese are very patriotic and will gladly accept low wages to keep their country ahead of the competition. We, in the USA, can only hope to be so patriotic that we will proudly accept significantly lower wages so that Ford is able to keep jobs in our country.
When our presidents allowed for offshoring and major corporation tax breaks, they knew what they were doing. The trickle down is for the jobs to remain here. We need to pay our employees less!
But I don't think we'll do it.... We'll complain about jobs leaving until they're all gone....
Thank G-d Ford doesn't make EVs like the Chinese,
https://www.energytrend.com/news/20221018-30074.html
Can you imagine the carnage of 3000 run away EV fires popping off all over the country?
Ford is uncompetitive with Chinese EVs, and Chinese manufacturing. Chinese companies do not have the burden of bad energy policy that the US has adopted. Why is that? Don't they need to save the planet as well? The Ford employees and Michigan voters cast their ballots for this uncompetitive landscape. Best and brightest, indeed.
using woke unironically is so funny, is this site just all old boomers big mad
Part of the woke agenda is eliminating ICE vehicles and replacing them with EVs.
Ford management and voting stockholders are definitely "woke". They have to prove that they are part of the team even if it means sacrificing a 121-year-old American icon.
Economically it doesn't make sense. Ford management must be expecting their woke buddies in the government to bail them out somehow. I don't see how, but I'm sure they talk to "The Big Guy". I don't.
@OP I noticed it is not my parent's Ford, mainly by the price. Too bad we have a marketing "genius" at the helm that have no clue what customers want.
People can accept quality issues in a cheap car, since is expected to "get what you pay for". People can accept quality issues on a luxury brand, since the main reason for buying luxury brands is to show off status, and the customers probably have enough income to afford multiple vehicles.
Getting a rusty F-150 after paying north of $60K, or losing the moonroof in a highway, or having a new vehicle catching fire is not accepted by customers, particularly after paying "luxury prices" on a regular cr@ppy vehicle.
Most consumers want a simple vehicle that goes from A to B, without spending 3 days reading the manual to synch their phones. Customers that want to pay for a fully loaded vehicle are few and far between. The more sh!t we put in a vehicle, the more software is needed to control it (software, the Achilles heel of FMC), and more complaints we'll receive.
Look at the reviews of the Mazda CX-5 (simple, nimble, reliable and good prices) for a vehicle done right. They sold more last year than we sold Ford Escape (at one time Escape were selling like hot cakes, now we are not even selling half of before) Why did I choose Mazda as the example and not the bigger japanese companies like Toyota and Honda? Because Mazda and Ford were collaborating for many years, and Ford owned a percentage of Mazda shares until 2015. So we're "close".
However, the C-suite is still chasing the EV unicorns and the green rainbows, instead of getting rid of many top heavy organizations, streamlining the processes and simplifying the designs. The only "idea" they have to cut costs is kicking workers to the curb and outsourcing the jobs. It is not looking good for us, nor doing any good to the brand or company.
The OP is right. It’s just heart breaking to see what the current group of clowns has done to Ford.
Fords are low quality......thats why i bought a toyota truck my truck will still be chugging along when that f150 is long gone