Contrary to popular belief and talk of conservative talk show hosts, all being fair and balanced, you could leave all those foreign cars at the port for the next ten years with heavy tariffs until we have a Detroit back on its feet.
We probably wouldn’t be in debt to China and Asia as a whole if we had a Congress that stopped the export of our jobs, factories and products.
We wouldn’t have our standard of living if it were not for the Unions. Without them, it would just be the rich and the peasants.
So, now we are paying for outsourcing with unemployment. We are paying for those who don’t want to earn it. We now have jeopardized our health industry with overhaul mentality than repairs and modification. The worst part is the congressional and senatorial buy-outs. What ever we would have saved was lost to Senator vote buying.
We will pay until it is broke.
Broke is when...I think we are already.
Most Sincerely,
Paul Pierett
Your idea has been tried before. See: British Leyland.
It didn’t end well.
Are you talking about Toyota cars? They are made in the US and hire American workers to build their cars. BTW they are a great employer. My husband has worked for them twice.
Toyota is not union and they are some of the highest paid with the best benefits. That is why the other car manufacturers hate them.
So you think that the auto industry ought to consist of three American manufacturers? Dude, the American automobile industry wasn't killed by imports, it was killed by socialists from the 1930 to the 1970s.
During the 1920s competition and economies of scale rewarded successful competitors, especially GM, whose sales formula brought down the Model T in 1926. Many, many other companies went out of business during this time as unable to keep up with the rest. Others honed their business models and rose over the rest, such as Chrysler.
It was during the 1930s, however, that the government killed off competition. By mandating material and labor costs and conditions, FDR's New Deal (NRA) reduced all competitive advantages to a simple matter of scale. Since materials and labor cost all factories the same, the only factories that could survive were those of enormous scale: during this time the "Big Three" were created, GM, Ford, and Chrysler. WWII saved the smaller competitors since they moved to war materials, but coming out of the War, the government continued wage and materials controls, which, again, favored the Big Three over their few remaining competitors.
Through the 1950s and 1960s all the Big Three competitors died off, except American Motors, an amalgamation of other, failing companies, and which finally died in the 1980s.(Btw, a 60 Minutes report that exaggerated claims of rollovers of Jeeps was the coup de grace of AMC.)
By the 1970s, the government had stifled and killed off all viable domestic competition to the Big Three, which then dominated the marketplace. However, import competition, in large part driven by the surving dealer network of the old independent manufacturers, filled in the crucial needs of alternatives for the consumer.
Your beloved domestic automobile industry is a government created failure.
Not responding to competition is what killed Detroit. Not being able to become competitive now using union labor is what keeps Detroit dead.
Protectionism solves nothing.