A slight interjection: Belgium's productivity is (said to be) as high as Japan's (and much higher than the US)(would a Pelicanite economist please confirm or deny that!). But the overall cost of labor is higher (I guess it's due to more extensive "social" benefits and the contributions and taxes making them feasable). In general, I think the comments from the U.S. are "influenced" (I express myself conservatively
) by terminology from the days of the cold war: I feel uncomfortable when European countries are referred to as being "socialist", especially in view of the stygma attached to that particular term in America. And, yes, they build Boxsters in Finland, a very expensive country. Maybe our Porsche people are not THAT inclined to LIKE going into cheap labor, I suspect they are anything but ...socialist. Maybe the modern factories and technology make up for the high cost of "labor"... I guess the truth is always somewhere in the middle. Look at it this way: nobody builds cars in Africa. Why? Lack of any kind of stability, of organization...