From: eap@leland.Stanford.EDU (Eric Perozziello)
Newsgroups: ba.general
Subject: Re: stupid consumers
Date: 3 Oct 92 01:28:36 GMT
Distribution: ba
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA

>
>>Let's also not forget that US companies are guilty of exploiting a
>>foreign workforce which they perceive to be cheaper (maybe because of 
>>lax safety standards in these countries).  This also takes jobs away
>>from US workers.
>

I don't think I wrote this part.  Some how it got put into my name.

>Were it true that offshore labor were cheaper for US firms to use, it
>would make them more competitive.  Failure to use this labor would
>cause US companies to lose market share.  Are you in favor of that?
>
>>Maybe US companies wouldn't need to do this if we weren't being attacked
>>from across the pacific, and dumb americans falling for it.
>
>Oh man.  To think I actually once wanted to attend Stanford's MBA program.

(Couldn't get in, huh?)

>
>"Attacked from across the pacific [sic]"  "dumb americans [sic] falling
>for it."  I suspect there's an editor's job at the SF Chronicle waiting
>for you.
>
>Exactly how are we being attacked?  By being offered superior goods of
>higher quality than what's domestically available at competitive prices?
>There exists an element of competition in any non-monolopolistic free
>market economy (don't they talk about that at Stanford?); Nissan is
>attacking Ford in much the way that Ford is attacking GM.

If you read the examp[le I posted, you might not have so many questions.
FAIR competition is welcome. non-FREE enterprise is not welcome. 
Many Jap companies have been Undercutting the US market, as I showed
one example of. I like free trade, if it's fair- then the textbook
theory works.

>
>As far as consumers being dumb, your ignorance is quite visible on this
>one.  The "dumb" consumers were the ones whose lax standards in the '50s
>and '60s allowed their domestic suppliers to survive, indeed flourish,
>by making shoddy, unimaginative goods that weren't built to last.  This
>isn't just the carmakers, either -- most US manufacturers have historically
>been driven by bean counters who seized upon the assembly line as a way
>to maximize throughput, with quality a secondary consideration.

and DUMB (which you seem to understand quite well :^) is the 80's DRAM
consumer that I stated in my origional post.  Do you agree that DRAM
consumers were "taken for a ride"? Why not stick to that issue?
>
>Happily, this is changing, partly because of the overseas "attack" you
>decry, and partly because of the "dumb" consumers who now realize that
>there is an alternative and who refuse to accept poor quality in their
>durable good purchases anymore.

Maybe because Bush told the Japs (after throwing up on them) to 
"shape up or get out".  He told them to quit stealing our patents.

>
>>Forty years
>>ago, when people actually cared about this country, it would have been
>>an outrage to buy a foreign car (as your first car). Now people think
>>it's trendy or something. 
>
>What a crock.  Forty years ago, it would have been an outrage to buy
>a foreign car because it came from those Japs or Krauts who we whipped
>up on in the Big One.  The American consumer was also quite short-sighted
>in the '50s as well, and his ideas of an acceptable product matched
>well with the domestic carmakers.


>
>>If you don't like this country- leave- you're not wanted. 
>
>Actually, it's ignorant jerks like you who aren't wanted.  But I won't
>share in your arrogance to demand that you leave.

If you can't beat 'em, attact 'em: you'd do well in japanese business.

>
>>And if you don't like our products, then go work in a country
>>that you think is better. 
>
>I hate to burst your bubble, but you are reciting the EXACT same 
>mentality that pervaded Detroit 25 years ago.  Upper management would
>not tolerate any notion that they weren't king of the hill, or that
>a bit of introspection might be useful.  "Loss of market share?  What
>are you talking about?!  I drove for twenty minutes through downtown
>Detroit just this morning and didn't see a single VW!  Oh, in California?
>They're a bunch of flakes anyway; I wouldn't worry about them."
>
>And since you haven't figured it out on your own, let me tip you off
>on the *real* difference between the Japanese consumer companies and
>their US counterparts:  the Japanese are much, much more market-driven.
>In simpler terms, they ask us what we want and then find a way to give
>it to us.  US manufacturers have only recently discovered the value of
>this (though there are notable exceptions like P&G, and look at their
>success).

Yeah, you bought it hook line and sinker, didn't you. American business
is out to get you, right? 

>
>Is everyone at Stanford like you?
>

Since we're into PERSONAL attacks here:
Yeah, they're ALL smarter than you!    :^)
Newsgroups: ba.general,misc.kids,misc.legal