Tired of Bad Economy?

aha I found these numbers on a website

What is more American than a Ford F150 pickup truck? Today your F150 might be built in Canada or Mexico as well as the US. Technically it is American if you mean from North America. At the same time a Mazda Toyota or Honda might be made in the US.

Even vehicles with US country of origin often have many of their components built overseas or in countries with lax environmental or worker safety laws so they can save a few bucks.

GM started closing plants and shipping jobs overseas when they were highly profitable. They made a good profit but were willing to lay off the workers who helped make them great just to make a few more dollars per unit sold. Years later when they are on the skids they come to our government with hat in hand for a bailout.

I’d wager that the biggest contribute of our trade deficit is our reliance on foreign oil.

Probably the best thing to do to help our economy would be to buy a diesel and run biodiesel to support our own farmers rather than the Middle East. There are a few domestic diesel trucks but currently the only diesel cars available here are Volkswagens.

3 billion debt…weird number. Are you talking about solving public debt, or private debt? Or the trade deficit?

Seemingly, you’re talking about the trade deficit…fun fact: the US number #1 export is hollywood, in terms of dollar value to the economy. Movies, television, etc.

One thing you didn’t mention…4 out of 5 toyotas sold in the US are made here (shocking, right?) what’s a japanese car doing getting built in the US? As filletofspam pointed out, you have to look at where the components for the car are made, not just the location of final assembly, as each step involves workers and money.

Here’s a thought, too: why are Toyota and Honda cars selling so well, even though you can arguably buy a Ford for less money?

The answer is pretty simple: planned obsolescence. The company expects your car to fall apart, need so many repairs, etc…this was a brilliant idea from GM, to ensure that people buy a new car every 5-8 years. However, that also ruins your reputation for quality, and thus, more people buy toyota (and prefer it) because the total cost of ownership is lower.

In California, it’s really hard to find anybody who buys American assembled cars (from American headquartered multinational companies) because, simply put, they suck. If you run your company poorly AND treat your community like dirt, well, you reap what you sow.

You’d only be supporting workers in Mexico. Buy Japanese and support workers that work in the United States. There’s a Honda plant in Ohio, for example. Seriously, GM really screwed up. Lousy cars, misleading advertisements, and now outsourcing labor to other countries to cut costs. In fairness Ford has improved a little.

Like filletofspam said, we live in a global economy. Very few “American” products are made entirely within the US, and numerous “foreign” products are manufactured within the US.

Protectionism never really made much sense to begin with, but it makes no sense at all these days. If you want the economy to improve, tell your representatives to quit giving your tax dollars away to prop up zombie businesses that need to just go into bankruptcy and clear the path for innovative upstarts to take their place.

excuse me but a Nissan clearly has less american content than a freaking ford and those of you who are critical of my age should insult me about something else and those of you who voted for obama are to blame.

All in all, that money is being given to an AMERICAN. Toyota employs 4,000 Americans and Ford employs 30,000. You people who have young children, where are your children going to work?

Actually, Ford employs 65,000 and Toyota employs 35,000.

General Motors: 92,000 Ford: 65,000 Chrysler: 38,000 Toyota: 35,000 Honda: 25,000 Hyundai: 4,000

It is legitimately more American to buy an American vehicle.

http://www.levelfieldinstitute.org

Obama actually told us to buy American, then took it back when he got a bad response. He tells us exactly what we want to hear, regardless of what that actually is and whether it would actually be helpful.

Despite a lot of American vehicles being foreign assembled, they still use more American content than their foreign counterparts.

Take the Canadian assembled Chevy Impala, for instance. It contains 85% American content.

Compare that to an American Assembled Hyundai Sonata that contains only 37% American content.

Despite being assembled in Canada, the Chevy is still supporting more American jobs. Don’t be deceived by advertising. Just because your car says “American Manufactured” doesn’t mean it uses American components.

Foreign oil is actually the top contributor to our national deficit.

Foreign vehicles are second.

Clothing is third.