General Motors Looking Toward Arlington Assembly Expansion

What I've always heard (anecdotally of course) is that the Willow Run cars were better assembled.

With the way car manufacturing is going, Fullsize truck sales don't seem to have anywhere to go but up.

wmba - true. Part of the reason manufacturing was offshored is the fact that China did not care about workplace safety or environmental damage. Capitalistic greed always takes the path of least resistance. Morality and ethics are words in a dictionary and courses to take that look good on a resume.

Lou_BC, that has been going on since the beginning of industrial time, all over the globe. Capitalistic greed is what built and developed this planet, and we as humanity are better off because of it. How many of these modern-day green weenies would want to go back to live in the agrarian days without cellphones or PCs?

highdesertcat - did I mention " green weenies"? "we as humanity are better off because of it" Ummm......just the part of humanity that is in your particular demographic. Easy to be a cheerleader for the doctrine "the end justifies the means" when you aren't at the bottom of the food chain. You've said before that you are a Christian......... was Jesus a Capitalist? I find it odd that those whom allege to be part of the moral Christian majority support right wing views that are in conflict with their religious beliefs.

@wmba Where did you learn such utter rubbish?

So companies pursue these local tax abatements, then they whine to the press that they can't find skilled workers. Maybe they could offer vocational education if you didn't gut the public school tax base.

Lou_BC, I don't wear my being a Catholic on my sleeve, because that is how I was raised. I didn't have a choice. But I do believe in hard work to get ahead. Even atheists are successful when they apply themselves, as are muslims and jews. It is truly amazing how far I have come from the kid born in Huntington Beach, CA in 1947 to where I am today and I attribute it all to my hard work. A long time ago I reconciled myself with the fact that there will always be people who "have" and people who "have not." When I started in life I was one of the "have nots." I resolved to be one of the people who "have." The only way I knew how to do that and to get to that stage in life and society from where I began was to apply myself and work hard for everything I wanted. And I often did the dirty deeds that had to be done because the end that I had in mind, justified my means to get me there. I don't see that from being any different from corporations and employers who work for their shareholders or owners. The views I support are not in conflict with my religious beliefs, but they are in conflict with all those yo-yos who believe that society, employers and governments "owe" them something for nothing. In order to get ahead, an individual has to apply himself or herself. And there are indeed life-long perpetual losers in the world. Those are the people who try and try again and never succeed. Those are the breaks. Such is life. Life is a b!tch. And it's Hell after that.

@Conslaw The local governments extend the tax abatements in the hopes that skilled workers will be attracted to move to that area and fatten up the tax base. The rising tide raises all boats syndrome. It worked for Rio Rancho, NM, also the nouveau riche oil states like the Dakotas and Montana. People moved there in droves. Price of housing skyrocketed. Many formerly poor people became wealthy overnight. Revenues went up. It has worked for a large extent for Texas as well whenever they succeed to rip a business entity away from California, for instance, and see a lot of people move with that company to Texas.

@Lou_BC highdesertcat - we have grown to the point where we as a race can start trying to overcome our primitive survival mechanisms. Capitalism is to a great degree a prime example of those mechanisms at work. We tend to function based on the need to generate progeny and ensure their survival. Anyone that isn't in our bloodlines or not close i.e. tribe is either a threat or source of exploitation. It is true that there are perpetual losers and those that actually do not want to work and will always live off the wealth generated by others. That occurs when one is on social assistance or happens to be the progeny of the filthy rich. Humanity is better off only if one is not from the groups that have been "capitalized upon". That has nothing to do with being a loser or a welfare bum. I too was baptized and raised Catholic and still am but I tend to be pragmatic and distrustful of doctrine or dogma. Pope Francis was questioned about things such as gay rights and other hot button topics and a rough paraphrase was, " we need to focus less on doctrine and more on helping people". I'm not the one that went down this path you did. Reasonable environmental stewardship is different than the green weenie agenda. Capitalism works but not if it is regulated by greed.

Lou_BC, I respect your point of view and I'm all for REASONABLE environmental stewardship. But in America, that stewardship is no longer reasonable. It has become oppressive, affecting those who create and provide jobs the most. To complicate things further, the top 20% earners in America pay 84% of all the taxes, while the bottom 20% of America's population live off the blood, sweat and tears of the taxpayers. Because of that inconvenient truth, I gravitate toward capitalism and its greed-driven goals and profits, anyday. Were it not for my own personal greed, I would never have worked myself out of the doldrums of poverty where I started. But in reality, it isn't about what you earn or make. It's more about what you get to keep. I'm against paying taxes to support the non-working, perpetually lazy and chronically obsessed free loaders. Better to give them a job than for me and likeminded to support them with our taxes. OTOH, I have compassion for those truly in need, and I help them directly through various ways and means, locally. (I'm not much for contributing to national organizations because I believe that most of that money is wasted on overhead, advertisements, money raising promotions, admin costs, outlandish perks for employees, etc.)

@Lou_BC .....To complicate things further, the top 20% earners in America pay 84% of all the taxes, while the bottom 20% of America’s population live off the blood, sweat and tears of the taxpayers..... Of course they do. Not surprising since the top 10% take home 45% of the country's income. That 45% of all income comes from the blood sweat and tears of the middle class below them that make it possilbe. Unless they are home receiving disability and whining about how unfair the wealthy are being treated.

@highdesertcat In older communities local tax incentives for industries are not so much about labor as about infrastructure - roads, highways, sewer systems, gas and electric utilities, schools, hospitals and, of course, the private stock of residential and commercial structures. Do you just let that decay, or do you use tax abatements to attract new employment to replace that lost or to maintain existing employment? The correct answer is empirical - ultimately, a hard-headed business decision. Windsor, Ontario went for the latter. Detroit, Michigan for the former. Examples abound. The American west is full of ghost towns where decay and abandonment was the obvious right choice. I have known Arlington, Texas since it was a country town on the east side of Fort Worth. Now, it is an ageing suburb embedded in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Its political leadership started with Tom Vandegriff and continues. A more savvy bunch of local sharpies you will seldom find. Personally, I would start with the premise that they did the right thing and then work backwards to determine why.

@Lou_BC "...was Jesus a Capitalist?" Not much point wasting time building capital stock, when one can simply turn water into wine..... Jesus was certainly not in favor of self (nor "community-") appointed holier-than-thous applying force to make people behave in ways they otherwise would not have. I have my doubts he would be in favor of lawyers demanding Texas style lynching of random Chinese children over "Intellectual property Theft" simply for daring to draw a mouse, either. So certain parts of what passes for capitalism today may well be a bit hard to swallow for a Christian. But not the notion than the Pharisees should stay the heck out of it. It being everything. Anyway, like all sensible people (and genuine Uber people), Jesus was likely an anarchist. As in, a libertarian who has come to realize even basic property protection, is more than any conceivable government ought to be trusted with.