Comments on: The Town Maytag Left Behind

One Midwestern Town Has Been Hurting Since Whirlpool Bought Maytag

[mythoughtsr]

aletadj, I did take the time to read and I can''t imagine it. My father (in his late 70s) I think truly belonged to the last era of where a lot of companies cared about their employees. Now it''s all about profit and nothing about people. Many here are right, quality is going down. We have had our Maytag appliances repaired several times; we had the foresight to purchase "expensive" warrenties but they have more than paid for themselves. We do that with any appliances now. Our microwaves, cameras, dryers, refrigerators, you name it. Everything has electronic problems because of the way they are made now.

I feel sorry for your town and everyone else who has lost their job to ching chang junk.

[jowand]

I bought a MAYTAG dishwasher 1 year ago and it is a piece of junk. Won''t buy another MAYTAG anything, vote with your wallet

[stevenga777]

3 years ago we bought a Maytag washer and dryer. The washer has never run right. Maytags are no longer the good quality they once were. They a pieces of ***. I find American workers to be lazy and immigrant and foriegn workers the most motivated to work hard and produce high quality goods.

[myidoncbs]

"See, what you need to understand is, outsourcing is good. See, they take those jobs overseas that nobody here wants! And that leaves us free to compete for the high paying jobs. See, they can sell us stuff real cheap, so we can buy more stuff! Competition is good. Free markets is good. Outsourcing is good!" -- G. W. Bush (paraphrased, because I''m too lazy to look up the actual quote. But believe me, this is very close to what he said.)

[drr2amtx]

Local Republicon Christian conservative response: "We don''t care who''s in charge or what they do as long as they protect our earnings on investments." (With friends like that, who needs enemies.)

[luvcomments]

You have it right, aletadj

Big corporations whose main agenda is to take a short-term profit are doing this to companies with hard-earned, excellent reputations for superb products all across the country. Where they don''t lay off most of the employees - who actually believe they will become a part of something bigger and better - in fact, most will be gone in six months and the rest within a year later, some let go after their brains have been picked and the others because they''ve come to understand the agenda of the huge conglomerate. These outfits cut back to the bone, destroy the product, destroy the promised delivery schedules, slather an ''unreliable'' label on the name of the acquired product, and treat their employees like slime. It''s the new way of doing business. They don''t give a tinker''s cuss about the product or the people they acquired, only short-term gains fto boost the bookkeeping and how much they can sell their shares for. If that isn''t anti-American, what is?

[Tundrajack]

Well if our $1050.00 Maytag Neptune didn''t require $400.00 in repairs in 4 years.......

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/maytag_wash.html

[ghostcommand]

Excessive corporate greed will lead to "eleven cent cotton and forty cent meat". and "hey brother, can you spare a dime". Un-restrained-un-regulated capitalism is "Fascist Capitalism". What good will it do when the Fascist Capitalist have all the money and the people have none? Will they be able to buy what is being produced and imported from cheap labor markets? Maybe we could deficit spend like the Bush mis-administration-57% increase in the National Debt. Maybe we could have a spin economy?

[danstoned]

Iowans are voting Republicon these days. Republicons are the special interests party of Neocons and Corporate America. Most people that vote Republicon do so with their heads in the clouds. Just ask a Republicon why they vote for Fascism in America. A typical response is: "they were good enough for my daddy (a bigot and a hypocrit) so they are good enough for me." Newton, IA, you have gotten exactly what you voted for. Vote with your heads upyourass, and poof, you are out of a job.

[aletadj]

I would love to invite you to be there on Friday the last day the the Maytag plant is open and see the support that the families and city of Newton give the people who worked there for so many years. I worked for Maytag for 12 years, I was laid off May of 2006. I go to school at Des Moines Area Commity College. My borther and friends will be one of those who will walk out those doors next Friday for the last time. Those steps out will be some of the biggest step some of them that they will ever take. Alot of people don''t understand the long days and hard work that we had to put in to that plant. The heat and the pain, so many of us had to enduro and some of the pains that will never go away. Maytag had aways of making you feel like family. And now the family has to go throught a divorce. Not by the kids choices, but by the greed of corporates acrossed this country. I thank you for taking the time to read.