I think the only thing cast here any more are import engines.

you can thank NAFTA for that 

I thought the "North American Fock The Americans" dealio expired?  Still going on??? Well, There's always China......

Ray

Why should an American company with sales all over the world, only make cars in the most expensive place in the world to do so?   If the unions were not guaranteeing $40/hr to push brooms and clean toilets in Detroit, they might not have to, but reality says building here makes them uncompetitive price wise.  Robots do most of the work building cars nowadays anyway.   History is cyclical.  Every society evolves from agrarian to craftsman to manufacturing to developer of new technology.   We now leave manufacturing to China, India, Brazil, Korea etc. as it is too expensive and environmentally challenging to do it here any longer.  Let others do it so that we can concentrate on suppling the world with new technology that can be developed few other places.  That is the key to staying ahead of the rest.  We did it most recently with the internet and personal computing.  Now we need to focus on what is next.

And you can count on Obama to be focused like a laser beam on the problem.      What could go wrong?

Cars are no longer "built" in just one country.   Nowadays automobiles are "assembled" in one place, from parts outsourced all over the world.  The U.S. developed electronics like TV and radio and microwave ovens first but we no longer make any of those things.  The whole world buys Japanese and Chinese electronics and have no complaints.  There are no American TV mfgs. anymore.   Dude, we invented computers but most of the components come from overseas too and that is relatively new tech to the world.   It sucks if we need the mfg. capacity for wartime, but you can't fight progress.  We need to become the cutting edge of research toward a renewable energy.   No matter how much we can build, if we run out of affordable oil, everything comes to a stop.  Petroleum cannot continue to be sucked out of the ground fast enough to feed the worlds engines much further into the future. 
You can't fight the cycle, as a country we either inovate and develop a completely new technology or product, that can be obtained no where else.  Or we can longer lay claim to the most powerful country in the world.   And the truth is we are just as flat ass broke as every other country out there, most people just don't know it yet.

sorry, rant off, drunk ON

One of these days, I will figure out how to embed video here 

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hdkUkU2GSU

Simple answer:  with all the red tape, industrial emissions regs, insurance, taxes, etc.....it's almost  impossible to produce anything here for a halfway reasonable price.  Nobody could afford to purchase the cars.  China has very few regs, which is why it's cheap to manufacture there.....same with Mexico and other less developed countries.   Soon it will be India and Egypt.

good one on that glen like the fart comment lol



                               rusty

[

Pat, you're not too far off, but the regulations are beginning to take hold in other countries and it won't be long before you will be fined for farting indoors...

GT


God I hope not Ill be in real trouble

LOL! THAT is Scarey man!

My intent with the NAFTA comment was kindof tied into what GC is saying. The entire thing, under the guise of promoting free trade and good will to our northern and southern neighbors, was really a heavily lobbied big money effort for big business to be able to move manufacturing operations to Mexico. Almost a 3rd world country where, with no tarrifs, parts and products can be manufactured at less than 25% of the cost of doing it here. It's all about THEIR bottom line and shareholder value, and THAT makes their bonuses. If anyone works for a large corporation, and I do and have, do not ever think the PR they feed you that they are working for you is true. I haven't met ONE that would be the least bit generous unless it was a tax write-off and got their name publicized some way.

Really has nothing to do with or for Canada. I grew up near a GM plant (Lordstown), and nearby was Delphi/Packard in Warren, Ohio that made all the electronics and wiring harnesses for the cars and trucks not only built there, but for several other plants. They're gone. To where? Juarez, Mexico, where, and get this, most of the children of the workers walk the border to school everyday to El Paso, Texas, America! Who's paying for THAT! We are! NAFTA!! Read the fine print.

UAW to blame? A big part of it, to be sure, but corporate greed has a lot more to do with it. I think I made the point on here once that 30 years ago, CEO's and top Execs from Fortune 500 companies made around 20 to 30 times the median wage of the companies they ran. The last peek into this was in 2005 that I saw and they make somewhere upwards of 200 times the same number..........and THAT is an average of much fewer employees! Unions can be blamed for a lot, but corporate, and individual greed has done far more damage to American business than anything Jimmy Hoffa could have ever done.

Ray