Absolutely Speechless

[mc2hill]

Its all in the manipulation of the figures Bill.... they focus on that "70% OF THIER VEHICLES WERE NOT BUILT IN THE US" what they didn't touch on is that its been that way for some time with most manufacturing happening in Canada or Mexico. They further manipulate that point by saying "its only going to get worse" ... well yea! If they open manufacturing facilities in China to service the Chinese market obviously the % of vehciles built outside the US will continue to climb so long as production in the US stays the same.

 

As an example:

 

Lets say I own a company making car wax. I produce 100 tubs of wax a year.

 

• Factory A is in the US and it makes 30 tubs of wax year. (30%)
  
  
• Factory B is in Mexico and it makes 70 tubs of wax a year. (70%)
  
  

 

I learn that China has a growing number of detail enthusiasts, as many as the US and Mexico combined. The government makes it prohibitively expensive to ship my wax there, so the best move it to make my wax there to sell it there. Especially when theres a competitor Chinese company that makes its wax cheaper and sells it cheaper in the US and mexico which erodes my market shares at home. I have to compete to stay viable so to capture market share I want into the Chinese detailing market.

 

So I open Factory C in China and due to demand it makes 100 tubs of wax a year.

 

So now my total company production is 200 tubs of wax.

 

• 100 made in China (50%)
  
  
• 70 are still made in Mexico (35%)
  
  
• 30 are still made in the USA (15%)
  
  

 

So the quantity of the product I make in the US is still the same, still producing the same 30 units as I was before the China factory was added, yet its now a lower overall percentage of my total.

 

If I wanted to take the approach of that video I would completely omit the production quantity, treat everything as a percentage and say

"Dylan's wax company is producing 85% of its wax outside of the US, an increase of 15%!"

or

"The percentage of Dylan Wax produced in the US has been cut in half"

The reality is that no more or less wax is being made in the US... it didn't change from scenario 1 to scenario 2, but by presenting the numbers in a different way it would seem as if I was scaling back US production.

 

See how they're playing with that there? Its never a good idea to swallow these youtube videos hook line and sinker... theres always an agenda somewhere. View anything like this with a level of skepticism and critical thinking. You can manipulate facts and figures to prove any point.

 

One of my favorite quotes:

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review

[Corners]

I'm a man of many talents

 

BTW: fixed your broken quote bracket.

 

Yes my Friend you indeed driving down a different road than I am.

 

And I greatly thank you for ye 'ol quote bracket.