> Titan had to pay millions to Washington lawyers to sue the Chinese tire companies because of their subsidizing. Titan won. The government collects the duties. We don't get the duties, the government does.
This is how tariffs work. You don't tax imports to fork over free money to domestic companies. The point is to increase the cost of the imported good to compensate for illegal (from the WTO's point of view) Chinese subsidies.
I'm confused as to why he thinks those taxes should go to Titan.
Quite the flame, I share others surprise that he would be quite so flagrant in his discussion. It is something of an art, and perhaps a bit of fun, to tell people 'no freaking way' with language that reads nicely. Clearly the guys at Titan have no interest in that :-).
It would have been more effective perhaps if he had shared with the people of Amien the context of the discussion. Something along the lines of "this is what we can pay per worked hour if we want to sell tires to your neighbors. More than that, and they will buy them from Chinese factories." And let the unions be the ones who get to decide that the jobs go out of the country.
I don't get why you'd ever send a letter like this (except anonymously, or if you were a politician). There is no upside beyond just "Sorry, we're not interested -- our new investments are focused on Asia, where demand for tires is growing 200%/yr. Sincerely, CEO." There is downside -- you might provoke some tariffs in EU/France, or disinvestment from the pension fund, or whatever.
While scathing, it is also very informative. "Not interested" and a vague "lookin' better elsewhere" doesn't get into the reality of "why?" Methinks he did them a great service in being brutally honest. Those trying to solve the obvious problems will make much greater progress with such a letter in hand, rather than the usual apologetic tact. "Helpful are the wounds of a friend..." I'm sure he would, in fact, like to…
Yes, but there is no percentage in it for him. It's like telling a random fat person on the bus that he's fat. Probably nothing happens, but there is a small chance he will fly into a rage, or will tell everyone that you called him fat (maybe blogging about it, with video!). There's a much smaller chance that he'll suddenly start to diet/exercise, but how does that benefit you? It's different if it's a friend/family member, or if you're hired as a trainer or doctor.
He makes some great points. People don't care where their good come from, they just want them to be cheap and high quality. # hour workday? Unbelievable.
Well, on the one hand people don't care where their goods come from when they buy them (or more to the point, they don't care under which conditions they were manufactured). But then, on the other hand, they don't want to have the standard of living of the people working in those factories. Short-term self-interest tends to make people ignore that in the long-term this model is not sustainable.
Exorbitant pay for 3 hours of labor* is much less sustainable. The euro-per-hour workers will (and do) work their way up to better conditions, while their overpaid slothful competition will just get shut down.
(* - we may also presume those 3 hours do not constitute "hard" work.)
I don't get why you'd ever send a letter like this (except anonymously, or if you were a politician). There is no upside beyond just "Sorry, we're not interested -- our new investments are focused on Asia, where demand for tires is growing 200%/yr. Sincerely, CEO." There is downside -- you might provoke some tariffs in EU/France, or disinvestment from the pension fund, or whatever.
While scathing, it is also very informative. "Not interested" and a vague "lookin' better elsewhere" doesn't get into the reality of "why?" Methinks he did them a great service in being brutally honest. Those trying to solve the obvious problems will make much greater progress with such a letter in hand, rather than the usual apologetic tact. "Helpful are the wounds of a friend..." I'm sure he would, in fact, like to…
Agreed. As someone who does a lot of biz dev, I would be thrilled if a prospective partner was this honest with me.
> Titan had to pay millions to Washington lawyers to sue the Chinese tire companies because of their subsidizing. Titan won. The government collects the duties. We don't get the duties, the government does. This is how tariffs work. You don't tax imports to fork over free money to domestic companies. The point is to increase the cost of the imported good to compensate for illegal (from the WTO's point of view) Chines…
I think he thinks he should be reimbursed for the lawsuit expenses.
While scathing, it is also very informative. "Not interested" and a vague "lookin' better elsewhere" doesn't get into the reality of "why?" Methinks he did them a great service in being brutally honest. Those trying to solve the obvious problems will make much greater progress with such a letter in hand, rather than the usual apologetic tact. "Helpful are the wounds of a friend..." I'm sure he would, in fact, like to…
Yes, but there is no percentage in it for him. It's like telling a random fat person on the bus that he's fat. Probably nothing happens, but there is a small chance he will fly into a rage, or will tell everyone that you called him fat (maybe blogging about it, with video!). There's a much smaller chance that he'll suddenly start to diet/exercise, but how does that benefit you? It's different if it's a friend/family…
There is a percentage in it for him: I'm sure he would like to own a French tire factory IF they actually had competitive productivity. With a verbal kick in the pants, perhaps the situation will change and he'll get a viable opportunity there. That aside, he's giving someone fair warning they're engaging in self-destructive behavior - a kind act.
And no, it's not like telling a random fat person he's fat. He was approached with a request that he purchase the company. It's more like an obese slob applying for a serving-staff position at Hooters or Tilted Kilt.