How did Corporations ever make money back when

[edhopper]

the largest companies like GM, GE and US Steal paid their union workers (40% of the national workforce) $35 to $40 dollars in today's dollars, compared to companies now like Walmart who pay around $10.
I mean they must have just scraped by, they couldn't have been among the bibgest and most profitable companies in the world paying those types of wages.

[leftstreet]

1. Their executives probably qualified for food assistance

Very good question

[edhopper]

2. They were also paying

much more in taxes then too.
Post war America must have been a gloomy place for Corporate America.

[global1]

3. They Made A Ton Of Money Back Then Because The Economy Was Cooking....

we had a robust middle class that spent their wage money and was the fuel to the system.

The corporations just got greedy and here we are.

[el_bryanto]

4. Well . . . part of that is that the United States was in a different place vis a vis their

international competitors. That's not to defend the current trends; but they do show a certain continuation of rigidity of thought. American Companies don't tend to look too far down the road. They didn't in the 60s/70s and they aren't now.

Bryant

[edhopper]

12. So how do German companies do so well

considering their largely Union, well paid workforce?

[The2ndWheel]

13. Because other countries don't do as well?

Germany is pretty big with their exports. If Germany is putting out products and people are buying them, somewhere that's going to mean that people aren't buying products out of some other country.

I have no doubt that there are many more reasons for why this or that happens, but basically we live in a finite world, there are only so many hours in a day, and only so many things to buy. Everyone can't do great at the same time.

[Sopkoviak]

14. Tariffs and other forms of protectionism.

Have you ever been to Germany? You've never seen so many "foreign" cars!

Almost all German.

[hifiguy]

15. Exports are surely part of it.

I was in China (Hangzhou area) for 3 1/2 weeks last summer and traveled to Shanghai as well. The clear majority of cars I saw were made by German companies. Benzes, Audis, and BMWs were as common as dirt. Almost every taxi I saw was a VW. But then German automakers have been tailoring versions of their cars for foreign markets for many years.

[el_bryanto]

16. Because they make a superior product.

As we did back then.

My point is that American Companies are not forward thinking - rather than trying to solve the problem of paying their workers well, ensuring safety, and making a great product, they are satisfied giving an ok product while giving their employees the shaft.

Bryant

[hifiguy]

5. Average people made more than enough money to

buy their products. New car every few years, etc.

Not no more. So they have to find some other way to bleed the masses bone-dry and redistribute their wealth into more "appropriate" pockets for safe-keeping.

[Sopkoviak]

6. Little or no foreign competition

Believe it or not but there was a time when you would see very few foreign cars, televisions were made here and fabrics and clothes came from our own mills and factories.

Hell, we used to export our excess production to the rest of the world.

Ask your grand parents, or me I'm old enough to remember.

[RKP5637]

9. Yep, that is pretty much the bottom line. The US really had no competition for

the most part back then. Now, the US has to compete with the world and until the wage level balances out globally this will continue.

[liberal N proud]

7. The old fashioned way - They earned it

Now it is about making money make you money, share profit over all else and greed from the top.

[The2ndWheel]

8. The world was a different place

Not only was the US one of the few functioning countries after all the wars, but white men were about it for the labor force for a while. Civil rights weren't big yet. Women working outside the home wasn't big yet. The level of automation didn't exist either. Then when more people became available to do the work(both in the US and everywhere else), and then more people weren't needed to do the work, prices are going to fall.

Unions have power when place matters. In a global world that is increasingly placeless, unions aren't going to have the strength they once did.

[riseabove]

10. Didn't GM go bankrupt?

[edhopper]

11. A few years ago

when the economy collapse, and mainly due to their financial divisions.
They had also already shipped most of their jobs out of the US.

So they were bigger and healthier when they paid workers here better wages.

[former9thward]

17. There was little global competition.

Now there is. U.S. companies were the top dogs after WW II. Now they no longer are.

[LanternWaste]

18. CEO-to-worker-pay was lot more equitable than it has been in the last two and half decades.

CEO-to-worker-pay was lot more equitable than it has been in the last two and half decades.. One of many reasons, I would think...

[edhopper]

19. But do these labor costs really result in big savings?

Perhaps not?

http://www.halfcostproducts.com/offshore_manufacturing.htm

Perhaps it is just greed and contempt for the workers than economics.

[rock]

20. Short answer: they didn't have MBAs

The super-mis-managers from Hell. Educated and trained to be "managers". Managers of what, you ask? Just managers. Before that, remember, mangers had to know something about the specific business. Now they're taught half-ass methods for running half the business. So their name is a misnomer, they're really Jacks of all trades, Masters of none. They use such non-specific names as generic product development process and widget because they don't know anything specific but they do know a lot of general rules which never apply, such as, the business needs to grow 10-20% a year and quality costs money. I'm probably boring you by now, but you did ask.

You might take a look at

to see the problem.

[edhopper]

21. So true

The son of a friend just landed a job at Earnst and Young in the "Company Growth and Developement" Dept.
Granted he went to Wharton, but what the fuck does a 23 year old know about Corporate development strategies.