We wrote in the Is Detroit Dead as a Dodo? blog below that over 70% of the cars sold in Silicon Valley have foreign labels. The San Jose Mercury News reported in its Friday, July 20, 2007 edition the top 20 vehicle brands sold in Santa Clara County from January through May, 2007.
Here is the list:
Toyota Prius 1,627
Toyota Camry 1,611
Honda Civic 1,504
Honda Accord 1,211
Toyota Corolla 1,168
Honda Odyssey 823
Toyota Sienna 765
BMW 3-Series 721
Ford F-Series 591
Toyota Tacoma 589
Lexus RX 497
Honda Pilot 489
Chevrolet Silverado 483
Toyota RAV4 468
Mazda 3 413
Lexus IS 394
Lexus ES 390
Nissan Altima 374
Acura MDX 351
Infiniti G35 31
Total 14780
Note there are only two ‘American’ cars in this list and foreign labels make up for over 92% of the total! By the way, The Merc also reported that 30,463 new cars and trucks were registered in the Santa Clara County between January and May 2007, but did not provide a breakdown by make and model.
So, Detroit is still a dodo in the Valley!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Whither America?
There have been countless news reports and articles in broadcast and print media during the past year on how China and India’s explosive economies will marginalize the U. S. over the next 20 to 40 years. We say, “Not so fast.”
To back what Jack (yes, Neutron Jack, the former head of GE) and Suzy Welch wrote in a recent issue of BusinessWeek, the news of the death of American leadership is highly exaggerated. America has a solid political system and one of the most, if not the most, corrupt-free economies in the world. Our system, despite its flaws, works. Following the resounding defeat of Republicans in the mid-term elections last years, there was a smooth transition, everything kept working, and there were no riots, no killings of either the contestants or the electorate — quite common in developing countries. Of course, elections in China are a farce. Corruption is rampant and a way of life in China and India.
The U. S. has had a solid democratic system for over 230 years with no military coup d’état or other political turmoil. India has an almost-60-year-long stable government, despite a short period when Mrs. Gandhi almost became a dictator and eventually paid a heavy price for it. But will the left-leaning, phony-patriots turn back the economic reforms instituted in the 1990s? China is an unknown. It is credited with inventing gun powder, paper…yet, xenophobic leaders built a giant wall to keep foreigners out! In each of these countries, just between 200 million to 300 million (depending on which source you believe) make a decent living; the rest barely live on $1-a-day wages. How long can this imbalance last? How long will it be before another Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) rise and start a Peasant Revolution and massacre another 20 million Chinese?
Sure, we have inequity in the U. S. too. We may have the world’s best healthcare available, but it is not accessible to everyone, with almost 45 million uninsured Americans. Every President for the past 30 years has promised reforms, but healthcare costs continue to climb at three to four times the annual inflation rate. We spend almost $1.5 trillion annually on healthcare — 15% of our GDP, and it is expected to grow to 25% by 2010.
Despite our current pathetic leadership in Washington and stricter scrutiny of incoming students, America still attracts the world’s elite that come here to pursue higher education and dream and build a better future. What attracts them is freedom and innovation. We still lead in innovative manufacturing, computer hardware, software, biotech, and are making headways in new energy sources.
So, don’t kiss America ‘Good-Bye’ yet. We will prevail for a long time, unless we let our ignorant leadership in Washington, political arrogance, and technological complacency take over.
To back what Jack (yes, Neutron Jack, the former head of GE) and Suzy Welch wrote in a recent issue of BusinessWeek, the news of the death of American leadership is highly exaggerated. America has a solid political system and one of the most, if not the most, corrupt-free economies in the world. Our system, despite its flaws, works. Following the resounding defeat of Republicans in the mid-term elections last years, there was a smooth transition, everything kept working, and there were no riots, no killings of either the contestants or the electorate — quite common in developing countries. Of course, elections in China are a farce. Corruption is rampant and a way of life in China and India.
The U. S. has had a solid democratic system for over 230 years with no military coup d’état or other political turmoil. India has an almost-60-year-long stable government, despite a short period when Mrs. Gandhi almost became a dictator and eventually paid a heavy price for it. But will the left-leaning, phony-patriots turn back the economic reforms instituted in the 1990s? China is an unknown. It is credited with inventing gun powder, paper…yet, xenophobic leaders built a giant wall to keep foreigners out! In each of these countries, just between 200 million to 300 million (depending on which source you believe) make a decent living; the rest barely live on $1-a-day wages. How long can this imbalance last? How long will it be before another Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) rise and start a Peasant Revolution and massacre another 20 million Chinese?
Sure, we have inequity in the U. S. too. We may have the world’s best healthcare available, but it is not accessible to everyone, with almost 45 million uninsured Americans. Every President for the past 30 years has promised reforms, but healthcare costs continue to climb at three to four times the annual inflation rate. We spend almost $1.5 trillion annually on healthcare — 15% of our GDP, and it is expected to grow to 25% by 2010.
Despite our current pathetic leadership in Washington and stricter scrutiny of incoming students, America still attracts the world’s elite that come here to pursue higher education and dream and build a better future. What attracts them is freedom and innovation. We still lead in innovative manufacturing, computer hardware, software, biotech, and are making headways in new energy sources.
So, don’t kiss America ‘Good-Bye’ yet. We will prevail for a long time, unless we let our ignorant leadership in Washington, political arrogance, and technological complacency take over.
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