  
 Supporting American-Made Products and Services from American-Owned Companies 
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Should America be concerned that Toyota is now
selling more
cars in the U.S. than Chevy, or that they are about to
outsell Ford next
year? The short answer is "yes." Read on for the long
answer.
First, American companies like Chevrolet pay more
taxes to the
U.S. Treasury, employ more American workers, support the
livelihoods of
more retirees' pensions and health care, and get more of
their parts
from domestic sources than Toyota.
Toyota has only been making cars here since 1987.
For their
first U.S. plant, Toyota was given 1,000 acres of free land.
A special
trade zone was established so they could import parts
duty-free from
Japan, and another special deal was made to allow Toyota to
avoid paying
over $100 million in taxes. The plant was built with
Japanese steel by a
Japanese steel company. Financing was handled by Mitsui Bank
of Japan.
The first car hadn't even been built yet and
American car
companies, steel companies, banks, and their workers were
already taking
it on the chin.
Rarely do American companies get such generous
deals offered
to them. Since they are based here, they are expected to
produce here.
And produce here they do!
American companies GM and Ford (Chrysler is now a
German
company) have twice as many plants in the United States than
all their
foreign competitors combined - including Chrysler, Jeep, and
Dodge.
As Toyota surges past Chevy, soon to pass Ford, and then
Honda does the
same as they are not far behind, American car companies will
probably be
forced to lay off more Americans and shutter more plants. As
the news
hits the papers, Americans will likely spew their venom at
American
companies for failing to "compete" and build better cars.
But few Americans realize that it costs American car
companies about
$1,300 more to build a car than it does their foreign rivals
because not
only do they support more retirees and pay higher union
wages, but they
also get fewer tax concessions from their own government.
I can almost guarantee you that if you and I both went into
business to
build widgets, and I had $1,300 more per unit to spend on
research &
development and design, etc., odds are that I will probably
outsell you
too.
Most Americans also don't realize that favoring Toyota will
inevitably
put them on the hook for higher taxes. Why? GM's pension
fund is
seriously under-funded because of the stock market downturn.
The U.S.
government has already taken over the pension funds for
troubled U.S.
steelmakers. Could U.S. carmakers be next? And we all know
who ends up
paying if that happens - the American taxpayer.
It was once said that what was good for America was good for
General
Motors, and vice versa. But it is unlikely that we'll ever
see a day
when whatever is good for Toyota is good for America. That's
because
Japanese-owned Toyota will always do what's best for their
home country,
and not their foreign subsidiaries. America would be wise to
do the
same.
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