Yellow Freight Bankruptcy

[rusty ol ranger]

No.... SHITTY Asian stuff sucks. Some of the world's highest quality goods come from asia..

All ive ever seen is shitty asian stuff then.

Its all cheaply built, designed to be used strictly as intended, and not to be pushed hard.

Its also generally impossible to repair

Take the light i bought for my driveway. 8months it took a shit. Wont even turn on.

Meanwhile the old mercury light at the old house has been shining atleast since the late 70s...obviously has had bulb changes but thats it.

 

[JohnnyO]

All ive ever seen is shitty asian stuff then.

Its all cheaply built, designed to be used strictly as intended, and not to be pushed hard.

Its also generally impossible to repair

Take the light i bought for my driveway. 8months it took a shit. Wont even turn on.

Meanwhile the old mercury light at the old house has been shining atleast since the late 70s...obviously has had bulb changes but thats it.

These days most things are built so cheaply that it usually costs less to buy a new one than to repair the old one, if it’s repairable at all. I couldn’t tell you how many cordless drills I’ve bought simply because the battery would no longer hold a charge and a new drill cost less than a new battery for the old one, if you could even find the right one. Same with cell phones.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

These days most things are built so cheaply that it usually costs less to buy a new one than to repair the old one, if it’s repairable at all. I couldn’t tell you how many cordless drills I’ve bought simply because the battery would no longer hold a charge and a new drill cost less than a new battery for the old one, if you could even find the right one. Same with cell phones.

Thats why most my power tools are 30+ years old and corded. That i bought used for 10 bucks at yardsales lol

 

[Fast Eddie]

Couple things....
1. Blue-collar union jobs (that Democrats pretend to support) have been largely chased out of the country. For the last 40 years anytime the Democrats had to choose between trade unions and the Greenies, they sided with the Greenies every time.
2. Unions successfully lobbied the government to regulate things that used to be the unions' job. This took the heavy lifting off the unions but then many workers don't see a need to join a union.
3. There is a practical limit to how much money a private sector business can pay its employees. I used to own a small business and have personal experience with this. I was limited to how much I could pay my employees (and myself) by how much my customers would pay me. Makes for a lot of work at the negotiating table for both sides.
4. There is no practical limit for paying govt employees. The unions donate work and money to elect politicians who will give them what they want and there is no real opposition. State and local governments will simply raise taxes and the Federal government can simply print more money. Hence, low-hanging fruit.

Also when I was a young college student I spent a summer working in a steel mill so I have personal experience with what @sgtsandman mentioned. When I got back to college my grades were a lot better the next year. Paid well but I didn't want to do that the rest of my life. Which turned out to be an unfounded fear because within five years most of the steel jobs in western PA disappeared.
BTW, I have a degree in economics, an MBA, taught macro economics, micro economics, marketing, and labor-management relations on a part-time basis at different colleges for 20 years, have a partial writing credit for a college economics textbook, and ran my own small business for 21 years writing real paychecks for real people and real checks to the government for real taxes every month and every quarter. I describe myself as a highly-educated redneck.

Love the closing . I think we're on the same page only coming at it from different perspectives, just as others have depending on the lenses it passes through (e.g. direct experience or affected by it somehow). I have two similar experiences on the early work front as you mentioned.

The first was cotton mills in NC that lead to joining the Air Force and subsequently resuming my education because wanted to do neither for the rest of my life. The latter sort of forced my hand with a policy change regarding children where both parents were members of the military. Landed in computers and never looked back.

There was one time after that, when I interviewed for a job in Phoenix to do Y2K work in Assembler (BAL). The company wined and dined my wife and I, put us up in a swank hotel, etc. You know the game. They put a lot of money on the table. I almost leaped at them screaming 'YES"!!! Prudently, I asked them to sleep on it. Good thing too. Like your experience above surrounding returning to the steel mills, my very literal first thought the next morning was 'don't take the job'. Not joking. I simply opened my eyes and there it was. 8 months later the company was bought by a competitor and all the employees save the highest executives were fired. And there I would have been, 8 months in facing the unemployment line.

I'm don't believe in that witchy woo, who do voodo crap but you may have had a premonition about the steel mills to set you on a different path. For me it was finishing my career with a large bank and retiring at 57. No unions, no worries and, certainly, no complaints

 

[Blmpkn]

All ive ever seen is shitty asian stuff then.

Its all cheaply built, designed to be used strictly as intended, and not to be pushed hard.

Its also generally impossible to repair

Take the light i bought for my driveway. 8months it took a shit. Wont even turn on.

Meanwhile the old mercury light at the old house has been shining atleast since the late 70s...obviously has had bulb changes but thats it.

Oh come on quit being so stubborn.

All the best electronics are made in Asia. Allllll the best powersports manufacturers are Asian. The landcruiser discovered half the earth. The best selling two wheeled vehicle of all time is a Honda.. over 100million sold. Japanese cooking shit is awesome AF..

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Oh come on quit being so stubborn.

All the best electronics are made in Asia. Allllll the best powersports manufacturers are Asian. The landcruiser discovered half the earth. The best selling two wheeled vehicle of all time is a Honda.. over 100million sold. Japanese cooking shit is awesome AF..

You opinion lol

Id take my polaris over a honda anyday, id put a CJ against a land cruiser anyday, and harleys are way cooler.

Im not a big rice or sushi eater either.

 

[Fast Eddie]

You opinion lol

Id take my polaris over a honda anyday, id put a CJ against a land cruiser anyday, and harleys are way cooler.

Im not a big rice or sushi eater either.

You may want to check that: Harley-Davidson to build bikes in China - webBikeWorld
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PSYCH!!! LOL. They'll build bikes in China but for the Chinese market.

Seriously, one is left to question: Is it really just a matter of time before our Harley's are built with low-grade chinese steel?

 

[superj]

harley golf cars had mitsubishi motors back in the 70s. all the ones i ever worked on had mitsubishi stamped all over the internal parts of the gas engines.

did the motorcycles too? no idea

 

[sgtsandman]

Thats why most my power tools are 30+ years old and corded. That i bought used for 10 bucks at yardsales lol

Corded tools are for longevity.

Cordless tools are for convenience. I’d rather climb up and down a ladder with a cordless tool than a corded one unless it’s something I’m staying up there for a while.

Corded tools don’t run out of juice unless something unusual happens to the power supply.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Corded tools are for longevity.

Cordless tools are for convenience. I’d rather climb up and down a ladder with a cordless tool than a corded one unless it’s something I’m staying up there for a while.

Corded tools don’t run out of juice unless something unusual happens to the power supply.

Meh....i dont mind dragging cords around. But the cordless do have their place...just everyone ive used seem to be lacking in power...but they were older models.

harley golf cars had mitsubishi motors back in the 70s. all the ones i ever worked on had mitsubishi stamped all over the internal parts of the gas engines.

did the motorcycles too? no idea

I forgot they made golf carts

 

[JohnnyO]

Love the closing . I think we're on the same page only coming at it from different perspectives, just as others have depending on the lenses it passes through (e.g. direct experience or affected by it somehow). I have two similar experiences on the early work front as you mentioned.

The first was cotton mills in NC that lead to joining the Air Force and subsequently resuming my education because wanted to do neither for the rest of my life. The latter sort of forced my hand with a policy change regarding children where both parents were members of the military. Landed in computers and never looked back.

There was one time after that, when I interviewed for a job in Phoenix to do Y2K work in Assembler (BAL). The company wined and dined my wife and I, put us up in a swank hotel, etc. You know the game. They put a lot of money on the table. I almost leaped at them screaming 'YES"!!! Prudently, I asked them to sleep on it. Good thing too. Like your experience above surrounding returning to the steel mills, my very literal first thought the next morning was 'don't take the job'. Not joking. I simply opened my eyes and there it was. 8 months later the company was bought by a competitor and all the employees save the highest executives were fired. And there I would have been, 8 months in facing the unemployment line.

I'm don't believe in that witchy woo, who do voodo crap but you may have had a premonition about the steel mills to set you on a different path. For me it was finishing my career with a large bank and retiring at 57. No unions, no worries and, certainly, no complaints

Believe me, it was hard being an 18-19 year old broke college student and gearhead seeing a lot of my friends driving new cars and trucks but after one summer in the mill I was like, nah I don’t want to do this the rest of my life. This was the summer of ‘79, the mills started laying off in early ‘80, and never went back to full employment or summer labor. By ‘85 they were all totally or mostly shut down and my buds were either out of work or moving south for work.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

You may want to check that: Harley-Davidson to build bikes in China - webBikeWorld
.
.
.
.
.
PSYCH!!! LOL. They'll build bikes in China but for the Chinese market.

Seriously, one is left to question: Is it really just a matter of time before our Harley's are built with low-grade chinese steel?

I doubt it. They woulda been doing it by now. Plus, sadly, reputation is about all HD has left these days....they start cheapning them up they are done

 

[bilbo]

You opinion lol

Id take my polaris over a honda anyday, id put a CJ against a land cruiser anyday, and harleys are way cooler.

Im not a big rice or sushi eater either.

For many many years Fuji Heavy Industries (parent company of Subaru) made Polaris’ engines. For sure in the snowmobiles, and I believe ATVs too. They started phasing them out in the mid 90s I believe.

 

[fastpakr]

I doubt it. They woulda been doing it by now. Plus, sadly, reputation is about all HD has left these days....they start cheapning them up they are done

They went through that once already with AMF in the 70's. At least they're better now than they were then.

 

[Snoranger]

For many many years Fuji Heavy Industries (parent company of Subaru) made Polaris’ engines. For sure in the snowmobiles, and I believe ATVs too. They started phasing them out in the mid 90s I believe.

They made 1 engine for Yamaha… Yamaha stopped using that engine after 3-4 years. They usually build the same engine for 10-20 years. They had nothing but issues.