This has nothing to do with unions or American steel.

Because if you pay the workers $5 a hour and buy American steel at cost, China would still beat the price.

This is all about china and other countries getting as much as our cash as they can and Bankrupt America.

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/02/05/shanghai-wonderbridge-trash-collapses/

The import ban came first.  The smuggling involved a bunch of BS from the Clinton administration.

eastern china?

No liberal here.  Just not a fan of unearned compensation at any level.  CEO's get superior pay.  Why should they continue to get bonuses for merely doing their job.  I don't.  


Money gone from the company is money gone form the company.  Under the direction of highly compensated CEO that were in place for years, My company has gone from 140,000 employees to 20,000.   Literally over $100,000,000 in compensation to wind up with a small unprofitable company.  Our stock is at $3.50/ share verses over $100/share.  Our current CEO is on Obama's commission on job creation.  Considering we lost some 60,000 employees on his watch, a perfect fit.  He has been there for 7 years.  Also, uring that time the number of VP's has gone form 5 to over 200.

A previous CEO sold off a business that brought in $1,100,000,000/year and made $570,000,000 in gross profits.  He sold it for a fire sale price of $625,000,000.  Wall Street went crazy in praise of the deal.  They sold it with the excuse that they did not see how it cold remain profitable under while under the corporate umbrella.  In other words, they didn't know how to run a business that was making money.  the fact that tat particular line of business grew form nothing to that level of success while under the corporate umbrella seemed lost on our highly regarded CEO.  Wall Street loved the guy.  BTW, there is no union in the company I work for.  

Same for Jack Welsh.  Easy to just chop employees.   Again a smaller company results.  You should see his retirement package.  Costs the company millions per year.  He didn't have the nickname Hatchet Jack for nothing.  Just imagine how profitable GE would be today if these same employees were still employed in new profitable venture for GE.  

At the turn of this century Forbes did a study of the relationship if CEO compensation and company stock price.  Over the previous 10 years, if you had invested $10,000 in large companies with the highest compensation package, you stock was then worth $1,500.  If you had invested you stock large companies with the lowest compensation, your stock would be worth $28,000.  There is no clear relationship between CEO compensation and corporate success.  

All I am saying is that if my salary is compared to others around the world, why isn't CEO compensation?

When we had the highest compensated workforce on the planet, we were also the industrial powerhouse of the planet.  Could you afford to house, clothe and feed your family, own and shoot your toys on less than $1/hour?  You also get no benefits at all.  There is something seriously wrong in our country when one person who does not produce anything for the company gets the highest pay.  

The company I currently work for laid me off in 1998 after 24 years with them.  I then got hired by a company that actually valued it's employees and treated the so.  It had grown from $0 to $250,000,000 in sales in 15 years.  The annual corporate bonus was the same for every employee because everyone worked hard.    This was actually the case too as you were reviewed by the people you worked with so if you didn't hold up your end or were a jerk, you simply didn't last that long.  In a cruel twist of fate, the company that laid me off purchased the new company I worked for.  They have systematically destroyed the business using the same business failed model that they have slavishly followed for decades.  There is no plans for growth.  Everything is based upon "managing" the business as it looks today with no thought for the future.  

The only bright spot for me is hat I am nearing retirement.  And no I don't get a pension. Health insurance will cost $12,000 per year under the company plan if I stay with it.   I will be living off the hard earned money that I saved over the last several decades.  

I am not a fan of highly compensated CEO's.  Probably under 1 percent of them are actually worth their salt.  CEO compensation has little to do with capitalism or free markets.   In a capitalistic world, if the job can not be filled internally, it should be put out to bid to the person who can deliver the most at the lowest cost.  That my sir is how is capitalism and the free market works

Richmond / San Rafael bridge has been a toll bridge as long as I can remember.



 

yup  

ahh, I cant remember the last time I crossed it. My Dad works at the Chevron refinery so we drove past but not over the bridge.

I would bet that the union politicians AND the unions were given BILLIONS under-the-table from China to make this happen.

This.  Let me know when the bridge is completed so I can leave myself a reminder to not go anywhere near the place.

LC

adjust for the cost of living between the countries and there might be a few. a lot of my friends make 3$ an hour here waiting tables.

I just noticed my ARFCOM coffee mug is "Made in China". It's probably the same reason why this bridge is built there too....

Why don't you ask one of our resident engineers about the quality of Chinese steel?  Savings based on labor costs using the same materials are fine.  Using bullshit pot metal, or even something less than the required quality of steel could be catastrophic.

Ever hear about quality Chinese drywall?

TXL

Wonder where the NLRB is on this.

Probably fellating Weiner.

San Fran has the correct credentials to ignore unions....

TXL

I certainly hope the hardware used is better than the typical stuff I get in china equipment.  They make bolts out of hardened butter, I swear it.

Do you even have a clue where you posted?

TXL

And you fail, in thinking it's any of your fucking business, unless you own stock.  At that point, vote.

TXL

That's what happens when you get the .gov to force stupid laws on the books requiring them to use your product.

It gets so expensive, even the .gov has to look elsewhere.

The blind leading the clueless.

TXL

Also assuming that you will test and hold them to it, because they will cut any corner that they can get away with cutting and hold you to acceptance if you didn't catch it and call them on it.

a busybody is a busybody.

how the fuck does this affect you.  If you don't like what they pay their ceo, don't buy from them.

And yes, that makes you a liberal.

TXL

A bridge in the middle of earthquake country, a bridge being built to replace the old one that was partially destroyed in a large earthquake. The new one being built with Chinese shit steel, with Chinese shit standards.

No, I don't see anything troubling about this, at all.

Did you not read the word: equivalent?  

ETA: Also, read the entire post again.  My point is if we are comparing apples to apples - it's a win win.  If we are comparing inferior to superior, it's a different story (such as your drywall example).

As long as we are comparing apples to apples, there is no problem.

Thank you, TxLewis, as I was just typing a reply similar to what you wrote to gaweidert.

Obvious liberal is obvious to everyone but himself (read, and reread this statement gaweidert).

Dibs on a spot under the bridge when all our jobs are outsourced!  

Hard to beat $12 for 16hr day.

I believe it was the bridge in Baytown TX that replaced a tunnel that they partially built and then had to start over because the non US sourced steel failed inspect after they had already erected it.



I'm in the steel business and THANK GOD most of the contracts we get in refineries and chemical plants specifically state all steel must be produced in the US and fabricated in the US to meet bid requirements.



Never done jobs quite that big, but if I have to quickly bid a job with just a quick look I normally take the material and double it to cover labor just to give you an idea of what's in it. That's for steel fabrication only, not erection etc...

Not like it matters anyway.  When a CEO gets a huge compensation package the board is spending shareholder money NOT your money and NOT the employee's money.  I couldn't possibly care less how much a company pays their executives unless I happen to be a shareholder in which case I can vote with my proxy form or vote with my feet.

How does pointing out data that CEO compensation is usually not related to company performance make me a liberal.  These people have huge compensation packages and I would expect phenomenal company performance as a result.  Very few CEO's have that kind of skill.  I am a big fan of Lee Iacocca.  He literally saved Chrysler corporation.  Interestingly enough he made millions in the process, but his pay was $1.00/year when he took over the job.  His compensation came off of exercising stock options.

My own company hired some very high face value CEO's over the last 20 years.  Lauded by Wall Street they did nothing to grow the business.  They sold off the ventures with great long term potential and retained the businesses that had great short term profitability but no long term prospects.  One of them received almost $100,000,000 in compensation over 7 years.  Is it too much to demand a good return on this investment?  The company has shed 80% of it's employees and has had exactly one profitable quarter in the last 7 years.  Still our CEO makes his millions.  What value are the shareholders are they getting for their money?

I am merely applying the same standards to CEO's as any other employee of the company.  I do field service for a living.  To have me walk through the door of your company is going to cost you about $950.  If I walk out and your equipment is still not fixed, would you still expect to pay for the service call?  BTW, my compensation is about 10% of that cost to you.  

There have been several articles in such capitalistic tools as Forbes Magazine (It calls itself a capitalistic tool) over the years concerning the cozy relationships between Boards of Directors and CEO's.  The boards simply listen like sheep to what the CEO says and then agree to meet again in three months.  Lots of wink wink and nudge nudge going on no one looking out for shareholder interests.  

There is a lot of corruption at the top.  But not necessarily what most people think of when they earth the term.  It is more a loss of contact with the real world.  Having been so long at the top, they no longer understand how their company works or may not even understand how the various segment inter relate.  I once had a guy with an MBA tell me that the MBA gave him the skill to run any company in the country.  I asked him how that could be.  He replied that he would simply ask the people under him if he needed any information.  I asked him how he would know that they are telling the truth.  

If you like throwing away money like this I would suggest that you sirs are also liberals. As a good capitalist I merely expect return on investment.  It two CEOs can deliver the same performance but one is 50% the cost of the other than the better deal for me as a shareholder is to hire the less expensive person.

That is an interesting way to save 400 million dollars.

Obama approves

 

That's kinda what I was thinking. PLUS, isn't it over salt water?

Even if there are no earthquakes I'm betting corrosion will be a major issue in ten years.

More brackish than salt.  The bay is a confluence of incoming tides from the ocean and outgoing flow from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.  Though, the ocean is a lot closer to the bridge than the fresh water sources.



 

See you and raise you.  

Yep, fuck the union dirtbags.

In Pennsylvania there is a state law that requires domestic manufactured steel for public projects

Which is why they are constantly painting all of the bridges out there.



 

California is just slitting its own throat.  Rather than keeping that money in the country (and in the state) when we have high unemployment and massive trade deficit, they are buying from a communist country that is now using its profits to boost its military and threaten its neighbors.  How stupid can California possibly be?  There is no way any American worker (union or non union) can compete with a Chinese laborer working at slave wages.  That is one of the reasons why China has so many riots.  Why not pay North Korea to build the bridge, they could do it for even less money using prison labor.  Then you idiots can piss and moan even more about the expensive unions.

Given the past track record of Chinese manufacturing fuckups (toys, dog food, tires, etc) there is no way I would ever trust a bridge built in a high seismic area by those fuckers.  The Chinese do everything they can to fuck us over at every turn, and we let them do it only because of money.  

When our own governments start buying from China, we are truly fucked.  They will probably use the profits to buy another aircraft carrier from the Russians.  Actually, why don't we just trade them one of our older carriers for the bridge and really save some money.  Like Donald Trump said, I deal with the Chinese all the time and they can't believe we let them get away with this....    Fuck CALTRANS and the Governator.

Build all the major structural steel members over there.  I'm not real sure that we have the ability to make them here anymore anyway.

Several years ago it was cheaper for National Steel and Shipbuilding to import a new floating drydock rather than build it themselves.

Walmart carries bridges now?

It's actually the sad, class envy that highlights your post....

And the fact is, if the CEO doesn't perform, then the consequences will become apparent.

BUY SOME STOCK AND VOTE, don't be a whiny liberal and ask the biggest wastes of human endeavor, the .gov to do it because big educated YOU think he makes too much or is not performing to YOUR standards.  Vote with your wallet.

Left alone, the market works, much better than any solution you have.

TXL


ETA, and before you go praising Lee Iacocca's wonderful saving of that pos chrysler, look at where it is.  And don't forget, half the reason is because THE GOVERNMENT bought a shit load of the biggest pos disposable car ever made in this country, The K Car.

Good luck with the lawsuit when it falls down at the first 3.0 earthquake or force 1 storm.

The same crap happened with the faulty auto tires.  You get what you pay for.

Quoted again so gaweidert can read, and reread until he understands that class envy makes you a liberal.  Just because someone is more successful than you does not make them evil.

There is a big difference between throwing money away, and paying what someone is worth.  You don't seem to understand that.  It is likely because you believe you are worth far more than the market does.  Sorry about that for you, but if that is the case - only you can do something about it.  Whining that you're not getting a fair shake is your own fault - i.e. what are you doing to ensure you are getting the best deal for yourself?  

Plus...I didn't have to type the reply - TxLewis is doing a darn good job at pointing out the liberalism...if only a few minutes before I can get back to read the posts and do the same!

Say hello to your competition. Slave labor.