Laws Have Consequences

Yesterday The Conservative Treehouse reported that Toyota has announced the following:

  • By 2021, Toyota will now invest nearly $13 Billion in its U.S. operations with plans to add nearly 600 new jobs at American manufacturing plants
  • Hybrid versions of the popular RAV4 and Lexus ES to be produced in Kentucky for the first time
  • Production capacity increases and building expansions at Toyota’s unit plants in Huntsville, Alabama, Buffalo, West Virginia, Troy, Missouri and Jackson, Tennessee

The article states that this is a direct outcome of the NAFTA replacement USMCA trade deal; and the new 75% rule of origin within the Auto sector.

The article explains:

The guiding decision here relates specifically to the construct of the USMCA (NAFTA replacement).   Toyota was previously focused on multi-billion-dollar investments in Canada as they exploited the NAFTA loophole and procured component parts from Asia for North American assembly and shipment into the U.S. Market.  However, when they renegotiated NAFTA and created the USMCA President Trump and USTR Lighthizer closed closed the loophole.

The new USMCA agreement requires that 75% of automobile parts must be made in North America; and 45% must come from plants with minimum labor costs ($16/hr); or face tariffs to access the U.S. market with the finished good.  As a result Toyota has to either pay a tariff to continue importing Asian component parts, or move the higher-wage component manufacturing directly into the U.S.

Obviously, Toyota chose the latter.

The article explains that Toyota is not the first automobile company to respond to USMCA:

Keep in mind Toyota is not the first Auto manufacturer to respond with increased U.S. investment. Prior to the USMCA German auto-maker BMW began building a $2 billion assembly plant in Mexico. Under the old NAFTA plan most of BMW’s core parts were coming from the EU (steel/aluminum casting components, engines, transmissions etc.) and/or Asia (electronics, upholstery etc).

However, under the USMCA the Mexico BMW assembly plant has to source 75% of the total component parts from the U.S, Canada and Mexico; with 45% of those parts from facilities paying $16/hr.

The result was BMW needing to quickly modify their supply chain, build auto parts in the U.S. and Mexico, or they would end up paying a tariff on the assembled final product.

Like Toyota, BMW made the financial decision to open a new engine and transmission manufacturing plant in South Carolina…. exactly as Trump and Lighthizer planned.

And don’t forget Fiat Chrysler made a similar announcement in February: “The automaker says it will hire 6,500 workers and invest $4.5 billion by adding a new assembly plant in Detroit and boosting production at five existing factories.”

Like him or not, President Trump is a businessman who is doing things that are helping the American economy and the average worker.

The Downside Of Convenience

A friend of ours has a car with a keyless ignition. That means that when he goes somewhere, he does not have to put the key in the ignition of the car to start the car–the key can simply be in his pocket. I will admit that I don’t actually understand the purpose of this technology–if you have to have the key with you, why does it matter whether or not you have to put the key in the ignition? At any rate, if you own a Volkswagen, Fiat, Audi, Ferrari, Porsche or Maserati, your car might have a keyless entry. So what’s the problem?

Bloomberg News posted a story yesterday which stated:

“Keyless” car theft, which sees hackers target vulnerabilities in electronic locks and immobilizers, now accounts for 42 percent of stolen vehicles in London. BMWs and Range Rovers are particularly at-risk, police say, and can be in the hands of a technically minded criminal within 60 seconds.

Security researchers have now discovered a similar vulnerability in keyless vehicles made by several carmakers. The weakness – which affects the Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) transponder chip used in immobilizers – was discovered in 2012, but carmakers sued the researchers to prevent them from publishing their findings.

The article goes on to explain that the transponders that allow the vehicles to sense when the RFID chip is in the car can be hacked. Since the chips are used in some very high-end cars–Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, as well as Fiats, Hondas, Volvos and some Maserati models, there is an increased risk of theft to begin with. The signal from the RFID chip to the car can be amplified and copied by a hacker. Then, when the car is left unattended, the signal can be duplicated, and the car can be easily stolen.

I am not opposed the progress, but if a car is more vulnerable to theft because of the RFID system, it might be a good idea to go back to the old system of putting the key into the ignition until you get the bugs out of the RFID system. However, the Bloomberg article points out that Volkswagen has spent the past two years trying to hide the security problem with the RFID chip, so the average car buyer has no idea he has an increased risk of having his car stolen because it uses an RFID chip instead of a good old-fashioned ignition key. That is a problem. If I spend the kind of money it takes to buy a Maserati, I don’t want an increased possibility of having my car stolen as part of the package.

Common Sense Has Left The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal (no link–the article is subscribers only) published a story on its opinion page stating that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is filing lawsuits against employers for doing criminal background checks on potential employees. The EEOC is calling the background checks for criminal activity racist because blacks have higher conviction rates than whiles, and therefore criminal checks discriminate against blacks. Therefore, as an employer, you no longer have the right to screen for honest employees.

Criminal background checks are legal and have been a part of the hiring process for years–just as checking the references given by a job applicant is both legal and a good idea.

The article states:

The EEOC suit is part of the Administration’s larger effort to redefine racism in America by using statistics, rather than individual intent or evidence. The Justice and Housing Departments have rewritten their rules and punished banks and counties like Westchester, N.Y., based on disparate statistical measures of lending and zoning. The EEOC signaled its plans in April last year when ti rewrote its enforcement strategy, declaring that “an employer’s evidence of a racially balanced workforce will not be enough to disprove disparate impact.”

There is one thing we need to remember here. No amount of reverse racism can ever make up for the racism that has happened in the past. All this racism that is statistically established will only create more divides and separations between people. Martin Luther King, Jr., had it right when he called for a ‘color blind’ society. That is the only real answer to discrimination.

Enhanced by Zemanta