can't win for loseing

[townlineterry]

wasn't that long ago American's were getting trashed for being materalistic greed heads who were destroying the planet with our selfish lifestyle. The rest of the world was living in poverty because we were such pigs.

Now I read that the whole reason the world's economy is going down the drain is because the American consumer is not spending money.

so come on guys, lets do our part to help humanity. Get down to Walmart and start buying plastic Chinese crap that nobody needs, whether you want it or not.

Terry

[digitup2]

Terry [think North American]I think that is the only way we will get out of this rut !.Although word is you folks are feelin it worse than us Canadians are at this time .A lot of US companies are pullin out of here and heading home with there jobs in this area . Volvo road grader division is heading back south of the boarder before 2010 and taking Volvo-Gearco and Champion with them but you can't blame them for taking there jobs home I guess we just have to diversify and carry on .Mean while we watch them import Chinese junk and people grab it up as fast as they unload the damnd stuff off the boats .Digitup.

[Tigerhaze]

I have heard about job movement on both sides of our borders. Here in KC we lost out on a Bombadier jet manufacuturing complex; the company (HQ'd in Canada) decided to put in in Ottawa. On the flip side I heard GM was shutting down much of their operations in Windsor, Ontario.

I agree- Canada is a good trading partner and I would much rather have Canadian-made goods than the Chinese crap. China is conducting economic "warfare" against us and laughing all the way to the bank as they use the trade imbalance and monetary controls to take our money and advance their space and defense programs.

Of course they are getting a little payback right now as I have heard their state-run corporations are hurting because of our downturn in spending, much like the Iranians are hurting from our reduction in oil consumption.

[digitup2]

Yes I think GM was taking the pickup operations out and sending it all to Flint Mi as I last heard .But they only get the Canadian bail out if they keep that Windsor Ontario plant open for ten more years .I can't help but think GM are looking for a way around it though . That just came out lately and I think GM needs the coin a.s.a.p. Bombardier is taking more home to Quebec there isn't much of there labour force left outside of Quebec either .Our largest local manufacturer is an exhaust manifold casting business and three years ago they finished building in China some of the employees went over and got things rolling .Now they have to make so many manifolds there that they are shutting down one plant here and the Chinese will not let them move molds or anything else back into North America and lately they found out that they can't bring anything but the shirts on there backs back out of the country if they pull out the Chinese take over .Now there is a place to build a plant!! and after you have spent the coin you find you have only helped out a corrupt country you should have stayed out of of . Digitup.

[townlineterry]

Digitup, I apologize, should have said North American, down here in the states we tend to forget that what happens here affects you folks too.

If we want to get out of this mess we really need to start takeing care of ourselves like we used to. Don't even grow our own food anymore. In the supermarket the wife showed me a package of frozen veggies, product of China, what we can't grow broccoli here anymore. Labeleed organic too, yeah I believed that one.

By the way, I haven't bought anything in Walmart for years, always try to support the locally own stores. I do make a point of useing their restrooms, however, anything to add to the overhead.

One interesting effect of this lousey economy, our son-in-law is a Broder Patrol agent in Arizona. He says nobody is trying to cross the border that is looking for work, they are headed south now. Except the drug runners, so they know just about anybody comeing north now is carrying drugs.

Terry

[digitup2]

A lot of Americans don't realise that Canadians are just an extension of there culture northward.With a slight change in attitude and the ability to put up with a bit more cold .With 11% of the population and a lot more space and unusable land mass then uncle sam .I trucked through North America for years and found the different areas and cultures entertaining .Truck the Alaska highway for a few months(those are the people that know what cold is ) then hit a crowded major southern highway for several hours .You will soon come down with a##holes per lineal mile complex .If you don't start ramin everything that crowds you it's a miracle.I live far enough south in Ontario that we get the same weather as centeral Michigan just on the other side of the lake If there was a boarder in Lake Huron I would be 44 miles east of it .My friends sister is a boarder guard at Port Huron -Sarnia and she says they could write a book on happenings weekly .I am shure that your southern boarder would bee more entertaining.I got into Mexico one afternoon and by luck got the same guy coming back in what ever he did when entering I could have been left there for some time trying to exit I got on the north side of that boarder and never went back south of it .Digitup.

[townlineterry]

Change in atitude is right. In the late 80's I was on over the road driver,used to run to Toronto and Montreal often. Alaways amazed me driving the QEW, three lanes bumper to bumper doing 75 or 80, if you needed to change lanes, just put your signal on. They would make a hole for you, never do that in the states. Only time a had trouble on the Canadian side was one hose head guard in Rock Island. Everybody else was cool, even in the Quebec boonies where I heard they gave English speakers a hard time, not true at all.

[digitup2]

Gota love the quick and easy way-QEW and the even more famous and dangerous four oh fun 401 . The road that proves high speed accidents are more fun .I like drivin State side better than those two roads in the winter .Although I did find that the closer you get to Florida the dumber they get about bunching up or every import four wheeler in that neighbourhood wants to pull in and drive in front of your front bumper and closer specialy if you are running a long nosed Pete no sense in letting the truck driver see your break lights !!I took a 45 ton drainage plow down south below Rauleigh and when I got there I was ready for a rest .I started out oversized over width and over weight when I got there I was over stressed and done for for three days .I was told years ago never admit to beeing a truck driver or a welder . Someone will put you to work where others won't. so i don't weld worth crap either !!. Digitup.

[JD440ICD2006]

I am an American citizen, love America. I was born and raised in the south. I grew up with folks that understood that making a living was paramount, making a "killing" (rapids growth at the expense of many) was what crooks aimed for.
Well, somehow, we ended up with large crowd of self righteous Americans that claim to be christian and all of that, but will cut off one of their fingers if offered enough money for it.
They also hired many of the illegal Mexicans to make more profit and not pay their share of taxes. Now they are wondering what happened to our economy.
All of these companies that chose "rapid profit growth" over steady profit growth by moving their opps to China, should have to pay a big price.
That single move will cost America for many years to come.