Interesting story about the ongoing saga with parts shortage.

[JimJa]

Interesting thread. Thought I'd throw my 2 cent in - not that anyone gives a rat's behind.

- Listening to Autoline Podcast last week. Interesting topic about chips. 91% of every thing with a chip has a connection to Taiwan. Part of the reason for the shortage is, as Phil stated, auto mfgrs want "tried and true" chips. IOW "old" chips. Chips are measured in distance between circuits on the chip, closer together equals a faster chip and everyone wants faster. Current chips are in the neighborhood of 5 nanometers and the auto mfgrs want the older ships (think first iPhone) of 90 nanometers. Problem is, no one wants to make to those older chips.
- Given China's intention with Taiwan (Xi has said in his lifetime), if chip production is cut off it will throw the world into economic chaos. Even if China does take over Taiwan, it's in their interest to keep chip production going. So, we'll see.
- We can only hope (I'm NOT optimistic) is those past and present clowns running the country learn a lesson and begin to bring production back to the U.S. (there has not been an Aspirin made int he U.S. since 1992) and concern for U.S. made meds should be of great concern. Think about China getting pissed and shutting off med production to the U.S.
- If things were made in the U.S. those ships off L.A. wouldn't be there.
- Of interest, when it is said there are 13,00 containers on a ship it doesn't mean there are that many. International rules as such that containers are measured as 20' units, not 40'.

Given the price of gas in CA, I ordered a new '22 Escape Hybrid for my wife. Two weeks later I had a VIN and production date the week of 15 November. For planning, called my dealer to find the typical delay between build and delivery. He said "Stand by. Ford typically moves dates back." Following day received an email indicating production moved to the week of 22 November (job #1 was 2 Nov). I'm not optimistic but makes me wonder how Ford and other mfgrs are allocating their chips between those vehicles sitting on lots and new builds. Selling those '20 and '21s that have sitting will be a HUGE tax write off for the mfgrs. My dealer is huge and he tells me he is only getting 10% of vehicles he normally gets.

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[Progeny2021]

Sorry but that's a pretty BOLD (and I'm being nice here) statement to make about 11,000 member you know nothing about.

You know the statistics as well as I do.

27% of working Americans Are $400 away from a financial emergency.

Half of all working Americans are one paycheck away from a financial emergency.

24% of working Americans keep less than $250 in a bank account.

27% of working Americans with college degrees admit to being one paycheck away from financial hardship.

It takes $7.88 in 2021 to buy what $1 did in 1968 - the year I entered the workforce. A 688.25% increase. My income certainly didn't keep up.

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Generally and statistically speaking, many here will suffer some degree of financial hardship at some point in their lives.

 

[WhyNot21]

...

It takes $7.88 in 2021 to buy what $1 did in 1968 - the year I entered the workforce. A 688.25% increase. My income certainly didn't keep up.
...

You're saying your pay hasn't increased 7x since 1968? Average pay in 1968 was $7.700. Multiply by 7 and you have almost $54k. It seems to that we're doing much better than that, but what do I know? I was making $1/week allowance back then.

 

[Grumpaw]

You're saying your pay hasn't increased 7x since 1968? Average pay in 1968 was $7.700. Multiply by 7 and you have almost $54k. It seems to that we're doing much better than that, but what do I know? I was making $1/week allowance back then.

$7,700....HA !!! That was good money. I was making around $300 per month as a member of Uncle Sam's Navy....but I did get free room and board, and all travel to far off exotic places was paid for !!!

 

[Langwilliams]

I bought my truck in late Dec 2019 an I retired Mid June 2021. It's not paid off but I did have to forget about buying the tailgate dampener.

 

[Jason B]

Also to think about. A lot of chips are made here in the US. Texas Instruments in North Texas for example, with about 11,000 employees. And I here they will be opening a new facility in the next year.
But that is just the raw chip on wafer. It then gets shipped overseas to be cut up, separated and encapsulated into IC packaging. And then shipped to manufacturers.

 

[AzScorpion]

Dave, you still need to win the lottery even with all those damper and 303 royalties coming in?

This inflation is killing me brother. ?

 

[AzScorpion]

You know the statistics as well as I do.

27% of working Americans Are $400 away from a financial emergency.

Half of all working Americans are one paycheck away from a financial emergency.

24% of working Americans keep less than $250 in a bank account.

27% of working Americans with college degrees admit to being one paycheck away from financial hardship.

It takes $7.88 in 2021 to buy what $1 did in 1968 - the year I entered the workforce. A 688.25% increase. My income certainly didn't keep up.

***********************************************

Generally and statistically speaking, many here will suffer some degree of financial hardship at some point in their lives.

You said specifically this forum and I disagree, actually I've seen quite the opposite here. I've seen many sell their Rangers to either get out of debt or because they had a company truck and just didn't need to be making that payment on their Ranger. There was just a thread the other day where one was holding off on any more mods (hard to do here ) because he just bought his retirement home and was sinking his money into that. Now I obviously don't know everyones situation here but I've seen more here who are financially smart, financially secure or heading in the right direction by their actions than most places. Just don't paint everyone here with a broad brush.

Now if we're talking the general population I tend to agree with you. I've had employees who made great money but live paycheck to paycheck because they're reckless with their spending. Then there are those who say they'll going to work 'til they drop and they have zero savings and zero investments but yet they're at Starbucks every morning getting their $8.00 Latte and first in line buying the newest $1,200 smartphone.

 

[Progeny2021]

You're saying your pay hasn't increased 7x since 1968? Average pay in 1968 was $7.700. Multiply by 7 and you have almost $54k. It seems to that we're doing much better than that, but what do I know? I was making $1/week allowance back then.

I recall that good paying union industrial jobs were in the $4-$5 per hour range with the average good paying non-union industrial jobs paying in the $3-$4 range. $150 per week take home pay was considered 'good money'.

Had the federal minimum wage kept up with productivity gains, we would be looking at $24 per hour now. Keep in mind that 'inflation' wasn't a problem until Nixon took America off of the gold standard, the 1973 'oil shock' and the new popular fashion of CEOs and company officers/board members paying themselves ridiculous amounts of money and benefits.

My first job was in an italian restaurant for $1.60 per hour, the minimum wage at the time - still in school too. You know what happened to the 'minimum wage'. I retired from a German company with a major footprint in North America. Job involved technical, and customer service backgrounds. Much traveling. Started in the $70k range and struggled to stay in the $40k range after nearly 17 years. During the final 18 months I was on paid medical leave for nearly 50% of the time. Fortunately, I was largely out of debt toward the end except for medical bills.

That job/career with no turnover in the beginning had become one where the 'warm bodies' couldn't rotate through the doors fast enough. All of the people I worked with have either quit, retired or passed away. Recruiters were telling the new hires the earning potential was up to $150k per year! My kids make good money but have little to show for it other than they're always 'broke'. They stopped asking me for money once they realized what my retirement income actually is.

 

[JimJa]

I retired at 53. Having a comfortable retirement is not rocket science, its discipline and long-term commitment. Remember it's not how much money you make in retirement, it's reducing your debt load because debt will determine how long you work. Remember too, saving money doesn't mean you don't have it, it means you've decided to spent it later.

Save until it hurts...then save more. Say you get a $100/mo raise. $25 for taxes, $25 to yourself because you are doing better, and $50 for savings - never look back and add to it with every raise. You'll make more in the future and pretty soon you'll find yourself putting away a significant sum every month. It's for retirement so don't touch it until you retire because that light you see at the end of the tunnel, is not someone coming towards you with a flashlight. Old age will be there before you know it, way before. Trust me on that.

I imparted that thinking to my 31 yr old son. He graduated from Cal-Poly in 2012 without debt and now has a little over $200K in his IRA. It took longer for me. At his age I was only interested in having enough money for the next round and chasing skirts. Age has a way of focusing you.

 

[Stevedbvik1]

I bought my truck in late Dec 2019 an I retired Mid June 2021. It's not paid off but I did have to forget about buying the tailgate dampener.

I think dampeners are approved Medicare medical devices, or they should be

 

[Motorpsychology]

Dave, I think you need to trademark "dampener." I think I can come up with a fitted closed cell foam sheet that will hold moisture that attatches to the tailgate. This will make the tailgate noticeably heavier and a damper an absolute necessity. Let's do lunch (you buy) and discuss my licensing fee.

 

[AzScorpion]

Dave, I think you need to trademark "dampener." I think I can come up with a fitted closed cell foam sheet that will hold moisture that attatches to the tailgate. This will make the tailgate noticeably heavier and a damper an absolute necessity. Let's do lunch (you buy) and discuss my licensing fee.

Chris that's a deal. I'll buy lunch but you have to come out here as it's way to cold in WI now for me. ?

Maybe we could design/license "The Dampener" specifically for the Tacoma. This way they'll have something to dry their tears with when we blow by them and smoke them in our Rangers. ?

 

[evoaire]

Just a reminder, the F-250 were removed by the end of September.

Just because Clinton was in office doesn't make it his fault.

Most companies are in business to make the owners a profit. So if things are less expensive elsewhere, that's what they may choose.

Wasn't it Nixon who opened China to the world? Some crazy economic theory about emerging countries, natural resources/raw materials and cheap labor. Go figure. Wait, wasn't America that country a couple hundred years ago?

It is not a vicious circle we live in, more like a vicious Mobius Strip. What goes around comes around.

Yeah, I mean really, some people are just too hard on the guy. I mean if I was president, and an Asian friend named Don Yon, sure I’d let him stay in the Lincoln bedroom, after all, he was always there for for me, you know depositing money in my bank accounts, to the tune of hundreds of thousands.
Buddy, I don’t know you, nor you me, but don’t pretend to know more about Clinton than others. And don’t pretend to pass off some party protectionist crap here. When some of us watched this man for many of years. This guy and his family is most Corrupt I’ve watched.

Don’t believe me, go ask Don. O wait, that’s right, after being summoned to appear before Congress this man disappears.

Ask your self this one question, how did the Chinese finally figure out how to successfully launch rockets into outerspace?
Sorry guys, I’m truly not a fan of that one.

 

[remtv]

I don't know if I should be happy or sad that I paid only 250 less than MSRP before taxes with only the student incentives (Did not trade in anything for the September incentives) but at least I got a truck that came on to the lot the day before and I needed a vehicle.

On the chip manufacturing side, if we let the PRC take Taiwan and completely hold the microprocessor manufacturing capacity that is going to be a bad future for us.

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