Hondax:
Lets include some big ones...Chrysler. I know Chrysler was sold to Cerberus but I bet you didn't know that the majority of execs that sit on the controlling board of Cerberus are Daimler execs. It's still Daimler at the helm, they are just mitigating their Legacy costs and putting themselves in a position to dismantle the company if need be.
Detroit Diesel, Freight liner, Volvo is Vo-Mack. Volvo bought the controlling rights to Mack Trucks a few years back. Target Stores are Swedish. Every 7-11 and every motel is foreign owned as well as every Sunoco gas station. At least we know who owns Citgo....my hero Hector.
It's getting hard to buy anything made in America. This morning I went to the local hardware store 'cause I needed 4 tomato cages for my garden plants. Frigging tomato cages are made in China. It's getting insane.
What I'm really starting to wonder about is what we are going to do with all the Ethanol we are now producing. At last count there were a total of 1440 filling stations equipped to dispense E-85 in the entire USA and we have a bunch of plants on line, cooking that corn liquor at a frenzied pace and contracting with local farmers (here) at 4 bucks a bushel, something has got to give and soon. It's gonna be ugly.
I believe HD, like most profitable American Companies (at least the ones that are left), outsource most of their components anyway. As far as net worth goes, I've never been to the Kansas City plant, nor the Milwaukee facility but I have been to the facility in York, Pa and the York facility is an old, bought from the Federal Gummit, WW2 arms plant. It's old, nostalgic (antique) so in the scheme of things I don't think that plant, at least, would fit Honda's perception of a lean manufacturing facility. Besides, HD is Unionized and Honda like all the Asian manufacturers building in our country is adamantly non union.
Honda's plant in Marysville, Ohio (where the Goldwing is built and cars too) was built and designed to be non-union. Marysville, Ohio is nothing more than a post office address. The plant is situated in the middle of vast acreages of farm ground with nothing around it. Absolutely nothing. No bars, no VFW, no gas stations, nothing. Honda reckoned that if you build a plant in the middle of nowhere there would be nowhere to organize a union drive. Under the Taft Hartley Labor Act, you have the Constitutional right to unionize, however, all union related activities, other than the actual vote cannot occur on company owned property. Honda ain't dumb.
I wholeheartedly concur with Jamie. If, indeed HD was sold, it would be to a holding entity of some sort with their backing coming from secured funds like pension plans.
