Not quite sold on “American-made”

People, in the Detroit area specifically, often drive around with stickers that say,

“Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign” (referring to the auto industry).

They pursue this with a unique form of discriminating vehemency. For example, at the Ford plants in MI, they have separate parking lots for Fords, other “American-made” and “foreign” cars, each further away from the plant respectively. GM is the same except for replace the “Ford” lot with a “GM” lot. My Toyota Camry would get keyed if it were in any section other than the “foreign” lot. I find this especially ironic, as the Toyota Camry was deemed in 2012 as the most American made car.

At this same Ford plant, they were making the Mazda 6 up until August 2012– Mazda is also “Japanese”. Meanwhile, the Ford Fusion line was being run in Mexico and just recently they (including me) made a copy of it for the Ford plant in question for just the “overflow” orders.

Did I mention that most of the robots we use to put them together are either Japanese or German (Fanucs and KUKAs respectively)?

Plus, there are BMW and Toyota and Volkswagon plants (among others) here in the US with US workers; the only difference is which CEO gets richer– the American one or the “other”. This is also good for a giggle, because sometimes foreign companies own the “American” ones (See: The Italian company Fiat is the majority shareholder of Chrysler; Chrysler is one of the American “Big Three” and also the blanket company for Dodge, Jeep and Ram).

Does anyone else notice the crazy amounts of blind patriotism going on here?

 

 

 

Ironically, I think the real “American” ideal of capitalism gets lost a lot with the “don’t buy foreign” mantra: the best product for the least amount of money wins. If that’s not the “American” car, I don’t necessarily think that Americans should buy “American” cars just because they are “American”. They should spend their money in a way that challenges the American car companies to produce a better and more affordable product.

Maybe if that would have happened sooner, the American auto industry would not have collapsed. They would have been able to hold their own because their products were worth the price they cost.
Sorry for the dissertation, but I’ve had this argument on the plant floor a lot.
Please chime in with any response you have.

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