–Better arguments for Professor Dove’s article, “Buy Ameri-mexi-nadian”–

1. The best thing to do for the economy is to buy what you think is the best value. If an American company isn’t building the car you want, or if the American car of your type – say a Focus – costs $50 more a month than its foreign competition, what else will you do? Lower your personal standard of living in an effort to ‘patriotically’ support a corporation? Ford doesn’t do that. Neither does GM or Chrysler. They buy their shit where ever it’s cheapest – usually foreign. And they move production to where ever it’s cheapest whenever they have the chance. Do you think a new factory will ever be built in UAW territory again???

2. Foreign companies have low labor costs, resulting in higher value cars. American companies have some of the highest labor costs. Although the American workers are more productive than their foreign competition – those gains are nullified by their incredibly high – low skill wage. Unions in the US have functioned like a power syndicate taxing the auto companies – resulting in far-above market wages for their members. An auto worker is doing basic manual labor for what is equivalent to $50 an hour while his non-union neighbor is willing to do the job for $15 or $20, even less in this economy. If the auto companies can get a reasonable hold on their labor costs – they’ll add more value tot heir cars and be more competitive.

3. Besides the history of bad quality, US car companies also have a history of bad service – and that’s a recent history. It’s been over a decade since most foreign car companies have offered the 100,000 mile power train warranty.  Domestic manufacturers still only offer the 30,000 mile with an expensive extension – and often don’t cover problems when they do occur during the 30k miles. That kind of thing really sticks in a person’s craw.

4. US companies have unappealing entry-level options - still. Each US manufacturer has it’s small economy car, the type first-time car buyers often get. But they don’t offer the value of other models – like the Honda Civic. And how could they offer value? US auto companies loose money on the little cars, and only keep them so they can compete in the first-time buyer market. That reason for having a first-rate high-value first-time-buyer car is to start a tradition with young people. If a person buys a Honda and has a great experience, they are likely to buy a Honda the next time around. And foreign manufacturers like Honda excel in this market because all they make are small cars and they do it profitably – that’s where their energy is focused.

5. We no longer need large scale manufacturing for national security. The Great War was certainly the war to end all wars. Who, after enduring the destruction and loss of life of that great global conflict, could ever wage large-scale war again? Our modern weapons simply make it too horrific.

[edit: 1948] Now that we have the bomb, large scale war is something we’ll only experience in history books. No one will wage large scale war because it would eventually end in nuclear warfare, which would be catastrophic and in no one’s interest.

[edit: 1953] Oh shit, we might need that heavy production, or some counter to the Soviet mechanized forces, which are growing at a rate that will soon threaten all of Western Europe with an unstoppable swooping invasion.

[edit: 2003] Large scale warfare is a thing of the past. Modern wars are small, requiring light and fast military forces and air power. Heavy equipment is obsolete when a hand full of Ranger teams with eye’s in the sky and bombs from heaven can do in a month what the Soviet Army couldn’t accomplish in 7 years – or when such a modest force can topple a military regime over night, such as Sadam’s.

[edit: 2009] Modern wars require many troops, but only a fraction of them are combat focused, because the main goal is protecting and appeasing the civilians of the area. Domestic production of military equipment can be small because we don’t loose it – we just wear it out. Sudden large-scale war production is as unnecessary as fighter planes and manned air power.:-)

I was just listening to BBC. It’s a good thing to do every other day or so. You get a clean outside perspective. They were describing the Cash for Clunkers program. LOL Just the way they dryly described it made it sound so totally stupid. The British accent “Cash for Clunkers,” then talking about the $4500 subsidy for buying a new car, how the dealers didn’t get the money up front so are crippled cash flow wise, how the program is so backed up, how it was so popular the whole 2 billion – or whatever – was used up in the first 48 hours, and how it effectively is causing people to “reschedule” their purchases. And the best part was summarizing the story by calling the Cash for Clunkers an indicator of how effective Obama’s philosophy of buying one’s self into prosperity will be.

 I just imagine some English guys sitting in front of their pints listening to this. “Bloody hell, Cash for Clunkers is it? The dog’s bollox, that one. I’ll give you this clunker right here – gestures to his mate – for $4500. Thought they was broke – they was? Like to be that bloke on a good day – Father Christmas and all that.”

 Senator Ryan was just saying that the opposition to the health reform bill isn’t because people are reading the bill – because there isn’t a bill yet to read. He wants people to wait until the bill actually gets written before they start getting upset about it. Yeah right buddy. Why don’t you guys write the bill before you send the President out selling it for three months? Or maybe coach Obama on a general approach so he stops grossly contradicting himself in the same paragraph. I agree with John Stewart on this one: The Dems couldn’t sell Eskimos shit they actually need.

 And what is this I keep hearing about a survey of Americans showing a majority not thinking the war in Afghanistan is worth “it”? Are people bag-of-door-knobs stupid?