FoMoCo
Besides the obvious market pressures on Ford, the real problems they face are high health insurance costs, high taxes, retirement benefits to retirees that are living much longer than previous retirees, high union wages and benefits, competing with foreign govt subsidized auto production and exporting, very low wages in other countries like Mexico....
Ford just announced they will close four US truck plants and move there future production of their econobox car , the fiesta I think, to Mexico.
Mexico offers low taxes, low health ins. costs, non union labor, fewer environmental restrictions, and less pension costs. It is sad to see them go but the market dictates their move away from the USA.
Now, if corporate welfare was politically acceptable i.e tax cuts which are subsidies to insure Americans had jobs, health care reform by limiting the amount of money lawsuits pay out so insurance companies could charge less, i.e Tort Reform...and National health care lifted the burden of health costs....the problem is National health care is projected to be funded by the wealthy and corporations....Ford is both.
If I was running Ford I would move the whole company to Mexico and make a fortune for my stock holders who are pension fund holders like firemen, policemen, postal workers, corporate workers, retired union workers and anyone else whose pension plan is stock based.
Many companies have already left. Look where everything is made, computers, phones, TV's, steel, oil, coal, toys, clothes, tires, wood, lawnmowers, tools, food are all produced by US companies that relocated oversees to reduce costs by having lower costs of production. In turn lower prices for goods increases the buying power of Americans, that is until there are no jobs left in America.
There are reasons that cause corporations to relocate to foreign countries.
Until our govt realizes that corporations are not money pits they can extract from at will, corporations will leave. Ford has just been slow to exit the US. If they have some sense of loyalty that keeps them here some oil rich nation will buy them in a hostile takeover and move production to a cheaper location....
They should go now before its too late.
