Collegian (Hurst, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 15, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 29, 1992 Page: 4 of 12
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Tarrant County College Collegian and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Tarrant County College NE, Heritage Room.
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4 / Collegian
Opinion
Wednesday, January 29, 1992
Editorial
Blasting U.S. justified,
considering products
A published report came out of Japan recently citing one of Japan’s
senior politicians, 79-year-old Yoshio Sakurauchi, speaker of Japan’s lower
house of Parliament, who said the major reason for the U.S.’s trade deficit
is that the American worker is too lazy.
“They want high pay without working,” he said.
Sakurauchi’s comments have since sent chills up the spines of some U.S.
workers and politicians, still devoutly riding high on America’s Gulf War
victory.
But Sakurauchi’s comments, unfortunately, are despairingly more true
than rhetorical.
Americans have been Japan-bashing for ages. And for what? Because
Japanese have been putting out products that some Americans believe to be
of better quality than some American products (ranging from cars to TV’s to
cameras) and putting them out at a lower retail price.
A product’s quality is a vague matter of taste that varies from person to
person. But, price is more precise. Most Japanese products cost less to
manufacture and sell. How is that? Well, that is the real issue.
If a Japanese and American company put out the same product,
manufactured the same way, with the same parts, then how can there be such
a difference in price, especially when the Japanese product has to be shipped
overseas? The reason is that the American worker demands higher pay for
doing as little as possible. It’s a simple fact of greed in today’s materialistic
society.
General Motors is in bad shape of late. The Arlington plant is in jeopardy
of closing. This situation might have something to do with union workers
demanding $25-an-hour pay (with benefits) for standing on an assembly line
and driving four bolts into the side of a car door.
In the Jan. 21 Dallas Morning News, Dave Perdue, president of United
Auto Workers Local 276 in Arlington, said that Sakurauchi is “drastically out
of touch” and that “the poor old guy needs to retire.”
That is the popular reaction among Americans. It should be the proper
reaction in a time of our country’s recession. Americans need to help
themselves out of their own economic hole. But as long as American
companies continue to boost labor costs for the materialistic worker of
today’s society, the economic hole will grow only deeper.
Let’s face iL Most American’s work for their pay check. The product
produced is secondary in priority. The pride that Henry Ford took in his
product and instilled in his workers has diminished.
In Japan it is just the opposite. To the Japanese, with their product goes
their company name. When that product is exported, that pride in workmanship
comes out because the product is sound and cost efficient To the Japanese
worker, there is pride in that. There is satisfaction in succeeding globally and
locally.
If only more Americans could harness that mind set
Japan deserves their long-overdue, fair share of America-bashing.
President Bush went to Japan and virtually blamed the Japanese for America’s
trade deficit.
True, America has been lax in demanding that Japan import more
American products. But, until we build a better mouse trap, we cannot expect
the Japanese people to buy it
There is much to learn from the Japanese, as much as we hate to admit
to it.
Sakurauchi’s comments do not reflect on the entire American work
force. Maybe not even the majority. But his comments can be held true to
a fairly large portion. “Lazy” may not be the appropriate word, but
Americans must learn how to put more pride in the products they produce and
how to accept pay that reflects upon the quality of the product produced for
the local and global consumer.
G’Randizing
Relief, a button away r
Randy
Scoggin
Women’s frequency of channel flipping also con-
nects them to a primitive past of nurturing. Women select
programming, wanting to see the story line develop and
grow; then if there is no substance, zap. ■*
Neither males nor females like commercials on tele-1
Lord, don't ever take away my remote control.
Let me graze among the channels as I spend time in
front of the tube.
I’m a power hungry primitive hunter in a modem
day world. I want to zap into oblivion those
unimaginative television commercials, game
shows without class and Saturday morning
cartoons.
The television remote control is an
advertiser’s worst enemy. It has been esti-
mated that 75 percent of households have one
or more remote controls, and how we use these
devices has been a priority in several scientific
studies.
Research has discovered that men rapidly
flip through the channels and are easily bored
with programming. Also, men don’t like to
relinquish control of the remote. Researchers
have determined this behavior stems from the male’s
vision. And in this area, research has deter-
mined another interesting fact: the person in
control of the remote knows when (down to the
second) there will be a commercial break and
also knows when to return to that channel after
the break is over. p
Advertisers are attempting to vary the tirne^
and length of commercial spots, similar to the
“blipverts,” those 30-second commercial spots
that crammed so much information in that they
caused viewers heads to explode— plaguing
Max Headroom. We all remember Max Head-
room, don’t we?
Oh, but we remote control freaks will remain un->
primitive nature as a hunter and his need for instant
gratification.
These scientists did not contact me. If they had, I
would have told them that I no longer can stand to watch
TV without a remote. I turn on the tube, settle into my
comfortable chair and start watching a show. Immedi-
ately my fingers begin twitching when the first commer-
cial comes on. I get frustrated when I’m visiting friends
and watch TV in their homes. I confess, I am a remote
addict. I admit I have recaptured my primitive nature as
a hunter. I am doomed by this need for instant gratifica-
tion.
Women, too, seem to have been scarred by the
remote. Research has determined that women change
channels less frequently than men but are as determined
not to give up the remote control to a channel-flipping
male.
daunted. Advertisers will not deter us from our primitive
natures. Relief is just a button push away. When
boredom hits me, I, like Dances With Wolves, begin my
hunt. However, I’m still totally amazed that out of one
zillion channels available, I often find nothing I want to.
watch. I
Then, I merely pick up my stereo remote and start'
scanning through the radio channels. I am comforted by
the fact that we also have remotes for VCR’s, CD players,
ceiling fans, toys, satellite dishes, garage doors, security
alarms, answering machines, car door openers and lights.
We even have remotes for remotes. ,
Technology surely will come up with a body remote
so that we can move our body and/or brains from place to
place. I might soon be able to leave my body in English
class but put my brain in the nearest movie house.
But, heck, I already do that anyway.
TheColIegian
Editor to Chief
Randy Scoggin
Managing Editor
Keith Fletcher
District News Editor
, Terri Lynch
News Editors
Saedra Pinkerton, NE; Julie Pruitt,
NW; Carrie Ross, South
fcUGiibert
Sports Editor
, Trey Holcomb
Reporters
Kim Fowler, Chuck Junes,
Joserph Wegesa
Computer Production Assistants
Claudio Branch, Curtis Cloud
David Wiley
Illustrator
Pete Hirnmetberg
Photographers
Robert Owens, editor; Stephen
Dickinson; Timothy Gray; Denise
Jones; Mfchael Penninger; Eric
Rectenwald; Btc Luecker, tab
technician
Director of Advertising
Cynthia Farrel
Advertising Sales Staff
Shane Boughton, Ken King.
Ronda Willis
Editorial Consultant
Diane Turner
Adviser
Dr. Joe Norton
1h£ Coftogton is ct wew student publication serving the torfant
CoiBMyJuniorCdtegedl^rlCf.Edltortalstotemeriisdonotneces^qriiyretteGf
the opinion of the TCJC admhisfr otion>
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letter? to toe pope? toouto beshort, free from Ubel endpoor taste
end include toe writer’s nemo end seeloi seculfy number, letters may be
brought to toe coHegtan office (NFC ABN t9). NW Assoc Decn+s office. F
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Collegian (Hurst, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 15, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 29, 1992, newspaper, January 29, 1992; Hurst, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1183109/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Tarrant County College NE, Heritage Room.