Paraphrasing, of course. Somehow I don’t think Thomas Donohue has been tapping into urbandictionary.com to burnish his street cred. Which is a shame, really. ’Cuz American slang is one of this country’s best, fully domestically-produced products and an extremely popular export. Unlike “domestic” automobiles which are, when you look at it, not so domestic after all, eh Mr. Bond? The Big 2.8’s foreign production and foreign-sourced parts are a DLS—but not to Uncle Tom. The Detroit News reports that the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce knows what’s what. “The domestic auto industry is not a domestic auto industry at all. If you went from bumper to bumper, you would find parts made from all over the world.” True dat. And Tommy’s crew is working furiously to make sure there aren’t any “buy American” provisions in the “stimulus package” (a terrific euphemism for . . . something). “We’ve got 30 lobbyists trying to keep an eye on that language,” Donny declaimed, assuring the Detroit Economic Club that he wasn’t fornicating Fido. Now, how are those guys going to Land it in the Hudson?
Regardless when you buy a detroit 2.8 car or truck the profits are staying here and not going to Japan or China, employing our workers and pooling money into our economy. Yes the labor and some parts are made elsewhere just as with Toyota and Honda. But do you think Toyota would contribute anything to our economy and keep American jobs in there factories if there profits were on the decline. Oh wait….where did TRD go? And how many management jobs are being replaced. And how many layoffs are were going to see before the year is out? It’s not going to be pretty folks!
ponchoman49:
What profits?
The only thing has stayed here with the Detroit automakers is the loses, and the destruction of hundreds of billions of dollars in shareholder wealth.
On this side of Chapter 11 none of the Detroit automakers will ever be profitable again.
If you want to bring profit to this country buy some “foreign” automaker stock.
As the DetNews article says:
“One hundred business groups and companies, including construction, defense and high-tech firms, wrote Senate leaders last week to warn that the provision ‘will harm American workers and companies across the entire U.S. economy, undermine U.S. global engagement and result in mirror-image trade restrictions abroad that would put at risk huge amounts of American exports.\'”
America has a lot of successful, profitable companies with large exports. It’s just that none of them build cars. What’s good for the country is no longer good for GM.
assuring the Detroit Economic Club that he wasn’t fornicating Fido
You guys owe me a new keyboard….
-ted
slush-Exactly! Companies Like Gimme More are hostile to our economy. They need to die or change so that the people involved can return to contributing to the economic health rather than being the recipiants of an elobrate, costly, un-official welfare system.
I agree that a profitable domestic industry is the best for the USA, but a strong foreign company that produces some profits here beat a wealth conflagration like GM any day.
You don’t fix a company like GM by throwing money at it any more than you help a gambling addict by paying his debts.
Bunter
Sofa King Deja Moo?
I don’t care what’s on the nameplate if its built in the US by American workers it benefit’s the USA. If its built outside of the US it benefits workers outside the US. If we only care about where the profits go then those people should love Walmart. The profits go to the US but virtually all the products are made in China. Is that what we really want. To me I want to see good paying jobs for average Joes making things here and if the factory has a foreign name so be it. That is still preferable to the keep the profits but the work is outsourced model. More products, parts, and things in general need to be made in the USA but the name of the company that makes it is irrelevant. Would you rather get a good paycheck paid by Toyota or a lousy paycheck with Walmart on it?
Ponch: Regardless when you buy a detroit 2.8 car or truck the profits are staying here and not going to Japan or China, employing our workers and pooling money into our economy.
Leaving aside the hilariousness of that statement, considering the enormous unprofitability of US auto companies, it’s not a very meaningful sentiment. These guys are all multinationals with subsidiaries based in target markets.
The accounting is done so as to conveniently recognize profits in the countries that have the lowest corporate tax rates, so that some foreign subsidiary is the entity paying the taxes. That’s why seemingly profitable American companies supposedly pay so little tax in actuality. If we want more profits to be recognized within the borders of the U.S., we need to lower corporate tax rates.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for the actual economic and social good to society that arises from profits, American workers in recent years have been far better served by the expanding foreign automakers coming in and hiring everywhere except for poisonous Michigan, than by the Detroit-3 with their layoffs.
Regardless when you buy a detroit 2.8 car or truck the profits are staying here and not going to Japan or China, employing our workers and pooling money into our economy.
“Profits” are merely a corporate tool for re-investment. Re-investments which should lead to growth of the company and if executed well, more profits.
If and when the domestic manufacturers obtain profits, they will do as they’ve been doing for years. They will close down manufacturing jobs in America, and invest their savings / profits in their less costly and more rapidly growing overseas operations.
Compare GM’s plan to close 3 plants in America to remain competitive, versus the plans for Toyota and Honda to build plants here to sell their hybrids competitively in America. Ultimately, it’s not where the corporate headquarters is located, it’s where that corporate headquarters intends to send it’s profits as investments into its future. For the domestic car companies (GM) they have made it clear that their future is not as American as is the future for companies like Toyota and Honda.
Doesn’t matter that Congress and Obama dictate buy American. In the end they will be forced to recant. Doesn’t matter that Congress and Obama bailout Detroit because in the end Detroit will fail. Excess capacity, shrinking market, and Green demands are more than enough to kill a corporate dinosaur.