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>>>However, the data fail to reflect the full extent of the shift from manufacturing to finance because non-financial companies often earn substantial profits from financial operations, without reporting separate information for their financial operations. The magnitudes in question can be substantial. For example by 2005, General Motors and Ford earned almost all of their profits from their financial operations rather than from producing cars. For General Electric, financial operations produced almost half of the company's profit (Henry 2005).<<< Comment Perhaps, in January 2002 this very point was talked about on Pen-L. Ford Motors Company held a simulcast for its employees outlining the prospects of the future. At that time, their spokesperson outline a coming period called "profitless prosperity." Today profitless prosperity can be understood in light of the past eight years. Profits derived from financial transactions rather than the difference between the cost and sell of an automobile. The spokespersons for capital have cried and screamed bloody murder over their loss of "pricing policy." In my estimate, FROP is also expressed as the loss of pricing policy, which in turn makes the brave new world of financial products attractive and an outlet for this capital. Enter Cerberus. Detroit is through, or rather the Mid West as the historical industrial center birthing the great American middle class. The great American middle class, created based on automotive production - with the autoworkers at the pivot, has relocated to the first floor of the historical museum. A new generation of vehicles - electric, gasoline or fuel cell, means new factories and new systems of production based in application of the new technology clusters. General Motors proposed to the union a system of module assembly in the 1990s. At the time this approached was theoretical and rejected by the union. Module means segments of the automobile are produced around the world and brought together for final assembly. For instance, the front end of a vehicle can be produced independent from other parts of the car. The increase in the density of dead labor is a foregone obvious. In is not just an absolute decrease of the total amount of labor deployed in production. How this process drags down wages in an environment where one segment of the means of production and then another are revolutionized, is becoming clear. The sum total of this movement is what is meant by the "destruction of value." Value means exchange value. Exchange value exist as buying and selling. The commodity form is under attack as the result of qualitative additions to the production process. In yesteryear, the growth of auto as the classical home of theological innovation, spurred on Fordism and grew the industrial workforce, even as magnitudes of labor were reduced per unit. This conflict between means and relations, Dear David, is a conflict precisely because the industrial workforce grew in absolute terms, even as the hours expressed as a unit fell. Today, what was a conflict between means and relations, arising as an expression of private appropriation of the social products, is superseded by antagonism. Antagonism means destruction, Conflict does not, Sir David. World auto production peaked at 70 million units involving about 40 producers. North American production - not sales, peaked in 2000 at 17,659,700. 2008 number was 12, 923,276 with sales at roughly 10.5 million. (All figures from WardsAuto.com) Sales are running about 10.5 for 2009. Chrysler sales for November was a market share of about 8.5% and in October 7.9%, but these figures are always adjusted. Chryslers historical market shares hovers between 11 and 13% of the market. Chrysler's sales dropped 38 percent in the first 11 months of the year, steeper than the 24 percent drop for the industry overall. All of Chrysler plants are old, compared with say Chinese producers. Projecting out to the world of 2020 - ten years from now, is scary. 2030 is absolutely frightening. The average autoworker understand the FROP as a lived experience. In our retiree meetings everyone talks about how their older children are being forced to return home because of low wages everywhere. The loss of pricing policy is expressed in the commodity labor power. WL. (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm) ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
