First, dan m, a laborer at the Chery car company in China makes an average wage of just under $2 per hour, that is why we are losing manufacturing to Third World countries. This will not stop as corporations are only concerned with price and rightly so since Americans want everything cheaper and cheaper. China will never care about their workers or the environment so it is up to our governments to impose steep tarifs on imported products that don't follow the same standards as us, like OSHA and ASME and the EPA. In the case of a forklift made in China a good formula for a tarif would be to first take the difference in wages, $2 per hour in China compared to $30 per hour in the US including benefits. Take the difference, $28 per hour and times that by how many man hours go into production of the forklift. 300 man hours times $28 per hour = $8,400 tariff on each forklift imported. Take all this extra tariff money and invest it back into the American economy by lowering taxes so Americans have more money to spend on American made products.
As far as what I am looking for next year in the forklift industry: Crown's IC product and how that will shake up the dealership structure in the US because everyone know's Crown won't stand for dual dealerships.
dan m., i agree with you. here in chicago we just had the coldest night time temperature (0 deg F ) on Wednesday. that treaty will not be approved here in the states. although California probably will. they think they are their own country. i think that forklift manufacturers should look at biodiesel and ethanol alternatives. or more development of lithium ion technology.
Emmisions. Global warming. Climate change.
Well, I suppose that many do have concerns regarding this topic, including the Canadian government, but not to the degree that other heads of state have on this topic.
I live in Ottawa, Canada, Canada's capital city. We use to be the third coldest capital city in the world, but got tossed down to seventh because of the break-up of the USSR. Today, it is -9C, just a day after we got dumped upon with 25 centimeters of snow. All 5000kms of Canda's east-west territory received snow in the last 24 hours, and temperatures out west have dropped to -17C as the day time high.
Factor in the wind, and it seems even colder than that. They are predicting that this winter will be the coldest in a decade, and that does not excite ME too much.
I believe the third world countries, such as India and China have to be more aggressive in controlling their environments. China is producing many forklifts these days, yet there is no control over their facility emmisions, nevermind the forklifts. As far as Canada is concerned, in my opinion, trying to sell this philosophy, is a tough sell. We endure four months of extreme cold, and tons of snow.
When I can keep my swimming pool open year round, and jump in on Christmas and New Years days, then I would be concerned about global warming, and the emissions. Until then, I am more concerned with the economies of the Americas, and the loss of production, and jobs, to third world countries. Not that these countries don't deserve some of the production, but not to the degree that has been lost.
I may sound naive, but rightly so, but most Canadians feel the brunt of winter, and we don't see any change coming soon. To me, the world is selling this global warming thing to the wrong country.
However, I wouldn't mind reading the concerns pertaining to this topic, from other member of this site.