Wunderboom - German exports surge

[sasguru]

Whatever excuses are made the fact is that in the sixties and seventies both management and workers got complacent and lazy and let things drift. That combined with the semi-religious ideology of the free-market in the 80s and the results were the wholesale destruction of manufacturing industry.
It's instructive that the French managed to save Renault, which had many of the same labour problems. It seems every single country has a national long-term strategy except the UK.

[NoddY]

Whatever excuses are made the fact is that in the sixties and seventies both management and workers got complacent and lazy and let things drift. That combined with the semi-religious ideology of the free-market in the 80s and the results were the wholesale destruction of manufacturing industry.
It's instructive that the French managed to save Renault, which had many of the same labour problems. It seems every single country has a national long-term strategy except the UK.

Managed decline.

[AtW]

And dodn't forget we're the second largest arms manufacturer in the world.

Rubbish. UK has got very small army, do you think you make more arms than Russia, USA, China? I think not. What you have are pretty expensive airplanes sold to arabs who do this in exchange for bribes. Would you have sold this stuff to them if you did not pay bribes? I doubt.

[NoddY]

Rubbish. UK has got very small army, do you think you make more arms than Russia, USA, China? I think not. What you have are pretty expensive airplanes sold to arabs who do this in exchange for bribes. Would you have sold this stuff to them if you did not pay bribes? I doubt.

Now we know where the Marshall Plan money went:

Income:

1 x plane = £1m

Expenditure:

1 x cost of production = £0.9m
1 x bribe = £0.2m


Result = -£0.1m

Genius!

[Charles Foster Kane]

The point that British PMs seem to have lost on is that good things that you only make in your country and don't give technology to others will be desired and will sell. Germans will never sell Mercedes to Indians, Chinese etc, they have pride not to do it and frankly the way they won't they will never even be in this position, yet in the UK iconic car brands are on a cheap fire sale from time to time - and this happens in country that started industrial revolution!

Aston Martin is British again, so I have to deem your tirade worthy, but moot.

[RandyW]

Doomed.