Fred Weiss wrote:
> On Dec 27, 7:38 pm, Dan Bloomquist
lakeweb.com> wrote:
> >> ...why would you condone the loss of a U.S. production base?
>
> As someone who has a good antenna for a strawman, why would you raise
> one of your own?
Good christ Fred, go back and read what you wrote. No strawman here...
> We all should do what we are most efficient/competitive at. This has
> been a well-established principle of economics for over 150 years -
> see David Ricardo's "Law of Comparative Advantage".
See the BBC documentary, 'The Century of the Self'. It was pretty
obvious that we should have started fixing this in the seventies. What
'we should have done' is just that. Here we are now.
> We long ago stopped being efficient/competitive in the manufacture of
> automobiles - thanks in no small measure to the UAW.
Right, it was all the working class's fault.
> As for Toyota, the reasons are complex and various why they
> manufacture in the US - as do other foreign car manufacturers. Right
> now it is very advantageous to them due to the cheap dollar. However
> when most of the plants were first built I think it was mainly to get
> around trade restrictions on imports.
See 'dollar yen' and explain 'cheap dollar'. Japan has been in a real
pickle for the last couple of decades.
> It gains us nothing - absolutely nothing - to manufacture products
> which we can import more cheaply. The savings we realize on the
> imports we can spend on other things, many of which will be made here
> and which American companies will rush in to satisfy.
> Btw, in addition to eliminating all tariffs and trade restraints on
> imported cars, I would also eliminate all regulations on their
> manufacture. If someone wants to produce a "tin can" on wheels which
> gets 90mpg, let them. Let the insurance companies sort out the
> premiums for cars which will end up pancakes in serious accidents.
> (That of course will be offset by the much lower replacement cost of
> such cars). This, too, is not a recommendation one would expect to
> hear from the leftard side of this debate. When given a choice between
> freedom and choice vs. gov't control and/or subsidies, you know which
> they will always prefer.
My son drives a TDI Jetta that gets better than 50 mpg and there is
nothing dangerous about that vehicle. You are creating another strawman.
And apparently for a partisan agenda.
