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Vol. 23, No. 3 • March, 2005
Now you can find this newsletter on the web, at Freeman-Spicer.com
ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE BUYING AMERICAN?
Made in the USA? Hardly. Many of the cars from quintessential American manufacturer General Motors are about as homegrown as those Toyota Camrys built in Kentucky. Take the Saturn Vue: Some 30 percent of its components come from 10 foreign nations on three continents. In fact, some “domestic” cars are merely assembled in the States; the Plymouth Crossfire and Pontiac GTO are mostly composed of imported parts. As the value of the U.S. dollar drops and wages rise in other countries, however, the U.S. might again become attractive as a base for manufacturing, says Rebecca Morgan, an industry consultant. And that means someday soon, we might actually get back to 100 percent American-made cars.
Saturn Vue - Now with 30% Foreign Parts: Mexico: Lamps, hoses and ducts
Sweden: Lamp assembly and lift gate China: Raw steel
Russia: Feedstock for synthetic polymers Canada: Rear suspension, steel stamping
Germany: Computer module assembly (brackets & braces)
Hungary: Transmission Malaysia & Indonesia: Rubber
Italy: Transaxle assembly Poland: Drive shaft assembly
American In Name Only: (Domestic vehicles with the lowest percentage of U.S. made parts.)
Plymouth Crossfire 1% GM Aztek 31%
Pontiac Aveo 5% Chrysler PT Cruiser 55%
Pontiac GTO 20%
American To The Core: (Domestic vehicles with the highest percentage of U.S. made parts.)
Ford F-Series Heritage 96% Ford Taurus 95%
Lincoln Town Car 95% Ford Crown Victoria 95%
Mercury Sable 95% (Wired 02-2005)
Plaques Into Pads - (don’t you wish you had thought of this one first?)
After 14 years in Congress, newly retired California Rep. Cal Dooley had collected over 50 commemorative plaques that used to cover the walls of this Capitol Hill office. When it came time to pack up last December, he wondered what he’d do with them. His idea: Make birdhouses. “I just converted them to a higher calling,” he says. “It takes about three plaques to make a house,” explained the former farmer who’s now the president of the National Food Processors Association. He has built eight. Wife Linda says she wasn’t surprised by her handyman. “He’s really into birds” and the houses are “the cutest things.” (U.S. News & World Report)
111,111,111 X 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 (Math is so perfect.)
Everyday Briefs
Customers are not always right.................. But they are always customers - and our only reason for being there. Knowing that the customer is always the customer (not the enemy or the problem) helps focus effort where it belongs: on keeping the customer. The goal is to satisfy and delight customers in ways that will keep them coming back for more. You hold the power to make that happen. To do it, you need to be and act smart. You need to know more than your customer does about the products you sell. You need to be aware that customers are human. And when customers are wrong, you need to use your skills to help make them right in a manner that neither embarrasses nor blames. (Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service)
Railroads......................... Does the statement “We’ve always done it that way” ring any bells?
The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the U.S. Railroads. Why did “they” use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made from Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever. Now the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiolol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horse’s behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advance transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass. (Newman)
Some great web pages you might be interested in ..........................google has a new “free” software download called “Picasa2.” Go to Google.com and search for Picasa2 and you can download the software from there. This software will help you sort all your pictures, plus it has some nice photo-editing tools.
If you go to: www.enature.com/birding/birding_home.asp - you can learn all about the birds in your neighborhood and even hear them. It’s a great website to learn all about your backyard birds and other animals that might be living there.
“Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.” (Robin Williams)
Pass this on............................ I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me and we all could use more calm in our lives. By following the simple advice I heard on a Dr. Phil show, I have finally found inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed: “The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you’ve started.” So I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn’t finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a fifth of Crown Royal, a bottle of white Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey’s, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of both Prozac and Valium prescriptions, the rest of the cheesecake, some saltines and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel. Please pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace. (Lopatin)
Corporation filings go online.................... One of the duties of the Secretary of State in most states is to register corporations. This includes filings, mergers and dissolutions. Thanks to technology, the National Association of Secretaries of State site allows online filing of corporations in some states. Even if you aren’t launching the next Apple, you’ll find links to licensing, notary services and other helpful sites. What you might also find interesting is under the heading “Other Filings” - this link takes you to disclosure statements from political campaigns, candidates and Political Action Groups (PACs). In Indiana you can search for companies and even search for UCC filing (for a nominal amount). Lots of good information for the asking:
http://www.nass.org/busreg/corpreg.html
Drug testing........................... We reluctantly implemented drug testing at our company. We warned employees well in advance so they’d have time to get clean. Those who tested positive for marijuana would be given a second chance. Despite the warning, we were in for a shock. Half of the initial samples from current employees were positive. Ultimately, we lost 25% of our workers (75% of potential new hires fail.) Yet, drug testing did work for us. Accident rates declined. So did petty theft. Even more gratifying, our remaining employees thanked us: They felt safer. And as an added bonus, we became more attractive to insurers. (INC. Magazine)
The are ........................... There are fourteen “punctuation marks” in English grammar. Can you name half of them? (See below)
Ripped-off??? ............................. Has someone approached you with a deal that was too good to believe? A company that wants to help you manage your money - they are just toooo good? Well now (besides the Better Business Bureau) there’s a place you can quickly look at to see if that feeling you have is correct. Go to www.ripoffreport.com to find out whether that company is really sound and honest.
From the old “Hollywood Squares” Show:
Question: When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
Answer - Paul Lynn: Make him bark?
Question: Do female frogs croak? Sincerely,
Answer - Paul Lynn: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.
Question: Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish
on his head, what was he trying to do? Edward C. Levy
Answer - George Gobel: Get it in his mouth? President