Corporate salaries at Ford are out of control and the reason for shitty QC

[cbrookre]

... (3) relatively inexpensive shipping pathway back to market.

It is my opinion that #3 needs to be where "regulation" or "tariff" occurs as that is where the most environmental cost comes from. Something that is not immediately realized, but making XYZ parts in China, after sourcing the materials from Brazil or the USA or Canada or all over, then shipping them back to the primary US market burns A LOT of carbon and nuclear fuel, pollutes the hell out of our oceans, and requires massive investment in very costly, very coastal shipping/receiving infrastructure that ultimately ends up on the shoulders of, you guessed it, the taxpayer.

We must incent companies to build and sell here and making shipping costs high enough that making it elsewhere and then shipping it here costs more and/or is more variable than just making it here and selling it here.

I agree with the incentives for companies to build and sell here, but the challenge is in the shipping costs. Once we charge tariffs on imports then other countries respond, and we really want to sell our goods outside of the US. Not fully cut and dry. We need to have policies that makes companies want and enabled to hire US employees, and the public will (in general) support US made goods if they are of comparable or better quality and cost in the same range as overseas goods.

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[IPOGT]

Back to the point. The quality control on many of our mustangs is an embarrassment to the American auto industry and It's also an insult to both us as purchasers and fans of the Mustang.

It's also an insult to the fine engineers and designers at Ford that obviously put their soul into designing a beautiful,fine and potentially world class product only to be totally jacked up with hit or miss manufacturing by some workers, production management and MIA QC people who couldn't care less.

If I were one of the designer/engineers who worked on this project, I'd be pissed.

What a great car they designed. Love the car, a lot. That's what makes it worse.

I never owned a car that had so many silly assembly quality issues since my 1979 Firebird and that's saying A LOT.

 

[IPOGT]

Union proud, union strong.

No government loans.

#1 selling US auto brand.

I believe the man has earned it.

What do I know, I'm just a dumb old Union-working, USMC combat veteran so people smarter than me will have some clever retort.

Thanks for your service.

With all due respect, I was a union member for years. Did my apprenticeship, became a journeyman made good money.
I had a guy next to me, also a journeyman. Made the same money. He F@#%&D up everything he touched. The boss gave him the easy stuff and I got all the tough jobs and I had to fix his F-ups. Nice huh?

 

[whoishomer]

China. And so is the millions of others who own one. What's your point?
It's not like you can buy a phone that's made in the USA.

Yeah not if you want an IPhone. But you could always try something made in the USA instead...

"A huge part of the Moto X's design story is its born-in-the-USA ethos. The company is designing, engineering, and constructing all Moto X units in the US."

My point was just that she says she buys US made whenever possible. Obviously not a true statement.

 

[Khell86]

US corporations might be the highest taxed, but that doesn't mean they necessarily pay those taxes. They take advantage of tax loops holes and pay next to nothing and they still think thats too much. While I wont argue with the salary thing, i'm fine with a company paying their leaders whatever they want, expecting companies to pay their fair share in taxes in order to operate in our country is the right thing to do. There can't be anyone here that thinks its ok for companies like Pfizer to pull the crap they're currently trying to do with their merger as ok?

 

[IPOGT]

I'm fine with whatever Ford or any other company pays their execs. The only thing I would ask for is a product that meets and better yet exceeds customers expectations if I choose to
purchase said product. That doesn't mean perfection. Just no obvious flaws would be reasonable.

 

[RobD]

I'm sure Fords CEO works very hard for his salary and no doubt makes good decisions. If anyone is really worth that sort of money could be debated. I worked at Publix for 20 years and their culture is somewhat different keeping all salaries at a responsible level. Take a look at the article written a few years ago.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...ceo-paid-less-20110508_1_publix-crenshaw-ceos

 

[paul123]

http://www.theglobalist.com/just-facts-ceos-rest-us/

Just the Facts: CEOs and the Rest of Us

Executive compensation wasn’t always so outlandish (and still isn’t in most other developed countries).



In 1980, U.S. CEOs out-earned the average worker by a factor of 42. The gap peaked at a ratio of 525-to-1 in 2000


Given that the average American worker earned $34,645 in 2012, the typical U.S. CEO earns 354 times what the average worker does

 

[Qwkynuf]

http://www.theglobalist.com/just-facts-ceos-rest-us/

Just the Facts: CEOs and the Rest of Us

Executive compensation wasn’t always so outlandish (and still isn’t in most other developed countries).



In 1980, U.S. CEOs out-earned the average worker by a factor of 42. The gap peaked at a ratio of 525-to-1 in 2000


Given that the average American worker earned $34,645 in 2012, the typical U.S. CEO earns 354 times what the average worker does

I never can tell if articles like this are intentionally deceptive, or just willfully ignorant.

In the above statement they compare the annual salary of the average American worker to the typical US CEO. What, precisely, does "typical" entail? Is it "average"? I doubt it. If it was average, they would *say* average. And I don't think that many of us actually believe that if add up the annual salaries of every CEO in the US, and divide by the total number of CEOs, that number is going to come out to over 12 million dollars. In my work, I have come into contact with hundreds of CEOs of small and medium size businesses who don't make anywhere near even a quarter million.

What they are really saying is that compared to the salaries of these selected CEOs.... in order to prove their point.

If you wanted to compare the CEO of a particular company to an "average worker" or the "lowest paid" worker, or the median wage at *that* company - you might have an argument, but I don't believe it actually means anything either.

How about this as a measure? Ford's CEO apparently made $18,576,946 running a company that directly employs about 199,000 people. That works out to a little over 93 bucks per employee that he is responsible for. Wal Mart's CEO made 19.6 million last year, with 2.2 million employees - that's only $8.90 per employee.

If you look at that another way, if they fired both CEOs and elected to not replace them, but rather to distribute their salary among all employees, that would mean a raise of $7.78 per MONTH for the Ford employees, and 74 CENTS per month for the Wal Mart workers.

I am not saying that they do or don't get paid more than they are worth (though "worth" is pretty subjective), I am just saying that I think a lot of people are tilting at the wrong windmills.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[paul123]

maybe they mean average CEO on the Fortune 500 ? I haven't really looked at any of the data. United Rentals is #500 on the Fortune 500. If this link is accurate, he is definitely making more than I do.

http://www1.salary.com/UNITED-RENTALS-INC-Executive-Salaries.html
Michael Kneeland
President and Chief Executive Officer
$8,402,819


These sort of articles like to point out that American corporate execs make much more relative to average wages, compared to their European and Japanese counterparts. Is the CEO of a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy that much better than BMW, Mercedes, Honda or Toyota? These may not be good examples, as I haven't actually looked up what any of them make.

Just for reference,

http://www1.salary.com/FORD-MOTOR-CO-Executive-Salaries.html
Mark Fields
President and Chief Executive Officer
$14,949,161

Alan Mulally
Former President and Chief Executive Officer
$22,042,128



Do you think Mark Fields drives a Mustang GT ? Naturally aspirated or supercharged ?

 

[Road Dog]

This just in...

Judge Judy is raking in $47 million per year for being snarky... What does that say about our society?

 

[paul123]

Kim Kardashian > Judge Judy :

http://www.forbes.com/profile/kim-kardashian/
Kim Kardashian has monetized fame better than any other. The reality star made more this year than ever as her earnings nearly doubled to $53 million from 2014's $28 million. :shocked:

 

[Flak]

Here's the thing, supply and demand works with human capital as well. I'm not saying every one of those executives earned that much, I don't really know how FMC is run in any great detail.

That said, let's say you have 5 people in the world who can run your 150Bn company well. How much are you willing to pay? Should you pay only 2M and suffer a 30% reduction in sales because of poor leadership? Should you pay the full 16M and fulfill potential?

While everyone would agree there's no real direct 'work value' at 16M for every person you have to figure in economics. Is a machine that makes 500M a year worth 16M a year? Sure. Why is it different for people?

Now what I don't agree with, is failing companies and terrible executives taking in bank. That's terrible management and bad economic policy. The irritating thing about 2009 was not so much that some people make a ton of money (they should if that is their market worth) but rather than a lot of people made a ton of money screwing the economy and not only were not prosecuted but had their companies saved by the people they just got finished screwing. That's way different than a good executive making 16M a year for running a huge company well, though.

 

[Brando]

Thanks for your service.

With all due respect, I was a union member for years. Did my apprenticeship, became a journeyman made good money.
I had a guy next to me, also a journeyman. Made the same money. He F@#%&D up everything he touched. The boss gave him the easy stuff and I got all the tough jobs and I had to fix his F-ups. Nice huh?

That blows.

My Union has a grievance process you can enact. Especially against management. And my manager couldn't fire me just because I called him on some BS. Does your private sector job give you that security? I was asked to resign from a private sector job "because people were uncomfortable working so close with someone so recently home from Iraq." I literally never spoke a word about anything on any deployment. I don't talk with civilians about what my experience was over there.

Yeah....Union proud, Union strong.

 

[IPOGT]

Screwed all of it. Made my own job security until I decide to fire myself. Geez, hope I don't get alzheimers...I might forget who I work for. No more union hands in my pocket, moron bosses and incompetent co-workers with no ethic.
Don't miss it a bit.
I've learned to like the profit sharing model much better. The incompetent get weeded out, the product and service quality goes up and the workers, management and the customer are ALL happy.

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