When it comes to cars, Buy American

Last year Toyota became the world’s largest automaker surpassing General Motors to take the prestigious crown.  A Japanese auto manufacturer,  Toyota employs nearly 40 thousand American workers, and despite the recession Toyota is not actively cutting its workforce (Toyota has announced it will seek to cut up to 1000 jobs worldwide by promoting early retirement through benefit packages, but as of now does not intend to lay off a single employee) .

That’s a lot better for Americans than the ‘American’ auto giant GM can say.  Although GM has nearly three times that many full time salaried American employees (nearly half of GMs workforce is overseas), they will all be taking an extended unpaid summer vacation this year: in case you didn’t catch it, that makes Toyota the larger American employer as well.  To make matters worse, GM a company already crippled by a workforce thoroughly unamerican in nature that recently received an extended life via forced open balloting (imagine going to vote for President with the armed guards for the opposite side watching you fill out your ballot) is now declaring its support of being nationalized.  And some would still claim Obama won’t bring socialism to America?

To date, Obama has actively worked to restructure General Motors, including manipulating bankruptcy protection to force some of GMs worse assets out without harming GM ( I wish I could own a highly unsuccesful company, drive it into debt while lining my pocket, and then dump it off without penalty later).  The current proposal is for American taxpayers to foot the bill for Washington to buy out nearly half of the company, for anyone who doesn’t know that is the textbook definition of nationalism: corporations that are jointly owned by the state and by private individuals.

The best example of nationalism comes from Russia, where after nearly a century Russian industry is still a catastrophic failure.  Nationalism is an integral part of socialism in which it is believed that industry cannot survive and compete unless it is subsidized and assisted by the state.

Private American industries have competed against and handedly beaten ’succesfully’ nationalized industries globally for decades.  A genuine work ethic and trust in the ability of private companies to manage themselves efficiently and competitively are part of the American way.  Nationalism has no place in America.

I shouldn’t need to tell you that Toyota makes better cars for a cheaper price which hold their value and their structural inegrity far longer than cars made by GM.  You should have seen that already from the market the moment GM shut down for the summer and declared its support of nationalism, while Toyota continues to operate at full speed.  Toyota offers a better product and is a better managed company, and as such Toyota is competitive globally.

GM should be allowed to fail, allowed to declare complete bankruptcy and to sell of all of its assets to pay its debts.  If they are worth anything at this point, newer better managed companies will buy up GMs brands and revitalize the American auto industry with a better business model and competitive designs.  But for now, “buying American” should mean something far different than GM manufatured cars.

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