Repair shop sign

adorshki

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Then W. Edwards Deming brought his manufacturing philosophy to Japan after being rejected in the U.S. The rest is history.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=14&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWmt_qqqvjAhUPac0KHYxnB78QFjANegQIABAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeming.org%2Fdeming%2Fdeming-the-man&usg=AOvVaw1v2GM1Oiq8qSfMQJJEBmoD[/FONT]

"Linkee no workee" (speaking of stereotypes), but I think this is what you wanted to show:

https://deming.org/deming/timeline


Also just in case it got by some folks, that pic of the '70 Subaru was entirely tongue-in-cheek, they were the last of "the first wave" to come to the US and that first model didn't exactly actually catch on, as one might imagine.
False starts, yes.
Ultimate victory, yes, generally acknowledged as the Honda Accord.
honda_accord_1.png

And how did theystart?
With the Cub.
hondaad1960.jpg


I remember well as a young man of 20, hearing one of the 2 40-year-old engineers where I worked at the time, saying "It's a real car !"
Engineer number 1 drove a Mercedes. Engineer number 2 drove a VW Dasher.
Both of 'em had worked on the B52 avionics retrofit program during Viet Nam era, genuine flag-wavers but not jingoists.
Me? I was enamored with my second car, a woefully hot-rodded '67 Camaro that ate parts with such frequency I only kept it for about 3 months.
At the time the reliability of Honda cars was unknown, but the point was I didn't believe utilitarian imports would ever gain the lion's share of the market over "good old American muscle."
Still, that comment always stuck with me, like writing on the wall.
And in the aftermath of the first oil embargo fuel-efficient cars were getting some real close scrutiny.
(A couple of jobs later around '77 another engineer bought the then-radical BMW 320i ranting about how for the same money he got better power-to-weight and sheer construction quality than the new Malibu wagon he'd been considering.)
Eventually after a 2-year love affair with a 1970 Olds Cutlass my first (9 year old used) Mazda RX-7 won me over in '88.
After about a year of unadulterated reliability and driving enjoyment, I "got" the Japanese philosophy:
Keep it light and cheap and easy to maintain.
And in Mazda's case with the RX-7 at least, FUN to drive.
Still, I did keep the Cutlass for a few years because there is still nothing like cubic inches when it comes to huge torque delivered without any high rpm fuss.
 
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dreadnut

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Thanks Al, my "copy link" is on the fritz. Wait a minute, there's another German reference...
 

adorshki

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Thanks Al, my "copy link" is on the fritz. Wait a minute, there's another German reference...
Let's face it, when it comes to cultural stereotypes and German ones in particular, we've had one purveyor of same reinforcing America's perceptions for oh, about 90 years:
800px-Katzenjammer_Kids_1922.jpg


Last new strip was in '06 and it's still in reprints. (!!!)
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Oh no worries! We are far less polite here in Europe! (Think Nuuska's jokes from Finland). In any case the sign is almost unreadable for a German...

Which is the Americanized spelling of German "Heinlein". Heinlein seems to come from the given name Heinrich and Heinlein means like "little Hein(rich)".

Ralf
Okay, I'll bite. Who is Nuuska and what are some of Nuuska's jokes?
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Sorry for the veer all but I remember growing up as a kid, the words "Made In Japan" were synonymous with junk and low quality. Don't know if it was ever actually true but if so, those folks turned things around pretty well I do believe.
It's true.

By the end of World War II, the only country with it's heavy industry and its economy both still in good shape was the US. Russia still had factories, but it also had famine and, because of its staggering war casualties, not enough workers. The US Marshall Plan helped western Europe, including Germany, rebuild. (If the US had done that after the First World War, there wouldn't have been a Second.)

So the post-war era (from the end of the war through the sixties) brought unprecedented prosperity to the US. The wealth wasn't shared by all Americans, but it was shared by many.

The US also invested billions in Japan. One thing Japan used the money for was to rebuild its shattered industrial base - first with factories that cranked out the cheap, easy-to-make "Made in Japan" crap we remember.

Then, after a few years, they sank the profits more advanced industrialization, and the big manufacturing dynasties we know today emerged.

By the time the seventies rolled around, Germany, Japan, England, France, Italy, and others were cranking out great products in their modern factories. And US factories built in the twenties and thirties were getting - well - old.

So what did Americans do? Start buying imports. Why settle for a Chevy when you could get a VW or a Honda (like the ad above in post 21) that cost less and lasted longer? Why buy an Oldsmobile when you could buy a Volvo that was safer and just as comfortable?

US investment followed that trend, and that's when the promises and perils of globalization began to emerge.
 
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adorshki

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It's true.
The US Marshall Plan helped western Europe, including Germany, rebuild. (If the US had done that after the First World War, there wouldn't have been a Second.)
The US also invested billions in Japan. One thing Japan used the money for was to rebuild its shattered industrial base - first with factories that cranked out the cheap, easy-to-make "Made in Japan" crap we remember.
Am I the only one who feels like I've read this somewhere before?

So what did Americans do? Start buying imports. Why settle for a Chevy when you could get a VW or a Honda (like the ad above in post 21) that cost less and lasted longer? Why buy an Oldsmobile when you could buy a Volvo that was safer and just as comfortable?
Oh right. I posted that pic.
But the point was that it was actually the oil crisis that opened the door, followed by Detroit's failure to change quickly enough to keep the imports at bay.
The strength of the dollar also made those German cars a much better value in the late '70's-early '80's.
BUT America DID still want a lot more interior room than most imports provided:
Enter the Mini-van.
Okay, I'll bite. Who is Nuuska and what are some of Nuuska's jokes?
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?197116-Finnish-sense-of-humor

I loved Robert Heinlein novels when I was a kid. Can anyone tell me how to pronounce his last name?

"Hine-line."

Like timeline.

Charlie, y'really gotta remember to read all posts before posting.
(Not that I haven't been guilty of rushing to post myself, occasionally.)
:glee:
German is a race?
You probably haven't read the Katzenjammer Kids.
:glee:
BTW<
 
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F312

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"Linkee no workee" (speaking of stereotypes), but I think this is what you wanted to show:

https://deming.org/deming/timeline


Also just in case it got by some folks, that pic of the '70 Subaru was entirely tongue-in-cheek, they were the last of "the first wave" to come to the US and that first model didn't exactly actually catch on, as one might imagine.
False starts, yes.
Ultimate victory, yes, generally acknowledged as the Honda Accord.
honda_accord_1.png

And how did theystart?
With the Cub.
hondaad1960.jpg


I remember well as a young man of 20, hearing one of the 2 40-year-old engineers where I worked at the time, saying "It's a real car !"
Engineer number 1 drove a Mercedes. Engineer number 2 drove a VW Dasher.
Both of 'em had worked on the B52 avionics retrofit program during Viet Nam era, genuine flag-wavers but not jingoists.
Me? I was enamored with my second car, a woefully hot-rodded '67 Camaro that ate parts with such frequency I only kept it for about 3 months.
At the time the reliability of Honda cars was unknown, but the point was I didn't believe utilitarian imports would ever gain the lion's share of the market over "good old American muscle."
Still, that comment always stuck with me, like writing on the wall.
And in the aftermath of the first oil embargo fuel-efficient cars were getting some real close scrutiny.
(A couple of jobs later around '77 another engineer bought the then-radical BMW 320i ranting about how for the same money he got better power-to-weight and sheer construction quality than the new Malibu wagon he'd been considering.)
Eventually after a 2-year love affair with a 1970 Olds Cutlass my first (9 year old used) Mazda RX-7 won me over in '88.
After about a year of unadulterated reliability and driving enjoyment, I "got" the Japanese philosophy:
Keep it light and cheap and easy to maintain.
And in Mazda's case with the RX-7 at least, FUN to drive.
Still, I did keep the Cutlass for a few years because there is still nothing like cubic inches when it comes to huge torque delivered without any high rpm fuss.

I worked at Lucent Technologies in 1994 (first American manufacturer to win the award). I still have some trinkets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deming_Prize

Ralph
 
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Charlie Bernstein

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Am I the only one who feels like I've read this somewhere before? . . .
Only if you were the only one looking over my shoulder when I typed it.

. . . Charlie, y'really gotta remember to read all posts before posting. . . .
Someone got up on the bossy side of the bed today!

. . . You probably haven't read the Katzenjammer Kids. . . .
Why probably not? Loved those guys. And Major Hoople. And Little Nemo in Slumberland. The best (and strangest) of the oldies: Krazy Kat.

And I sit corrected. According to Urban Dictionary, these days some people use racist to describe any prejudice: Racist

So now we know: like a lot of other words over the past few years, the meaning of racist has changed - e.g. awesome, epic, existential, guys, iconic, literally, and perfect.

Nothing wrong with that. A chauvinist used to have a capital C and meant someone who favored everything French. The way we use it now is much handier.

PS - Seeing Germans called a race was a little disturbing, which is why I brought it up. The Nazis pushed the idea that nationalities and religions were races.

It's creepy to run into someone who thinks that way, so it was a minor relief to see the Urban Dictionary entry. All's right with the world. (Except for all you people reading over my shoulder. Sheesh!)
 
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dreadnut

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OK, well my original post was intended to be humorous, so everyone please take it for what it's worth. The concept is to keep your damn hands off the machine, LOL.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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OK, well my original post was intended to be humorous, so everyone please take it for what it's worth. The concept is to keep your damn hands off the machine, LOL.
Yup, we got it. It was funny! I got a chuckle, anyhow. And not racist. Because German isn't a . . . never mind.

Anyhow, I was just trying to tell whomever-it-was that he was right about Made In Japan.
 

The Guilds of Grot

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Another Heinlein fan here! As a young teen I read all of his "boy adventure" books. Door Into Summer being one of my favorites. It wasn't till I got a little older that I moved on to the Novels. My favorite there is I Will Fear No Evil.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Another Heinlein fan here! As a young teen I read all of his "boy adventure" books. Door Into Summer being one of my favorites. It wasn't till I got a little older that I moved on to the Novels. My favorite there is I Will Fear No Evil.
I used to assign The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress to new community organizers sometimes.

When I was in high school, there were two reading lists: required reading (e.g. Silas Marner and Arrowsmith) and the books English teachers pretended didn't exist, like Be Here Now, Candy, Cat's Cradle, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Prophet, and Stranger In a Strange Land - which we totally grokked.
 

DThomasC

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Yup, we got it. It was funny! I got a chuckle, anyhow. And not racist. Because German isn't a . . . never mind.

I can go along with that. So let's forget about the opening post and think about something else instead. Something inspired by this thread, but...

Not too long ago I heard a man refer to a Latino woman as "Miss Housekeeping." The woman was not a housekeeper, but in fact was a person of great accomplishment deserving of respect. The man called her "Miss Housekeeping" simply because she is Latino.

Latina is a race, so I think it's safe to say that the comment was racist. I suppose we could argue about whether or not it's bad, but we can't argue about whether or not it's racist. I think the comment meets everyone's definition of racist.

Now, suppose someone were to refer to a German man as "Mister Hitler." In fact, he shares virtually no similarities with Hitler, the comment was made simply because the guy is German.

What do you call that? If German is not a race, then we can't call the comment racist, but the act must have a name. Note that I'm not asking whether the comment was good or bad, politically correct or not; don't care about that. I just want to know what to call it if I can't call it racist.
 

fronobulax

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I'm torn between closing this and adding my two cents again.

I will express my opinion that if something is claimed to be a problem and people spend time arguing about what to call the problem then they are not really interested in fixing it.

If we want a better word than 'racist' why don't we consider "stereotyping" or "offensive stereotyping"? The OP is a piece of humor based upon a stereotype. Whether it is offensive depends upon perspective. For some people, stereotyping groups of people is inherently offensive. For others it depends upon how the stereotype is used and whether they feel a personal connection to the group.

Humor, in general, is tough because what some people find funny, other people find offensive. Consider, for example, the genre of "blonde jokes". I laugh but my blonde wife tends to glare at me for laughing so I am very selective as to if, or when, I tell a blonde joke.
 

adorshki

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I used to assign The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress to new community organizers sometimes.

When I was in high school, there were two reading lists: required reading (e.g. Silas Marner and Arrowsmith) and the books English teachers pretended didn't exist, like Be Here Now, Candy, Cat's Cradle, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Prophet, and Stranger In a Strange Land - which we totally grokked.

MY freshman English teacher even turned me on to On the Road.
:friendly_wink:
 

dreadnut

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My bro-in-law had a belt buckle once that said "Nuke gay whales for Jesus." Offended everyone simultaneously.
 
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