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Originally Posted by Dragoneye
They're proposing giving thousands to people to go spend on any car??
Were I a senator/etc, I'd demand that that money be spent on an American car, no discussion. Otherwise this is another example of how we like to throw our money out of the country, because 48% of buyers still go foriegn!!!....ugh!!!  Who are the fools who drafted this up? Corker and Shelby?!?!?! |
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Originally Posted by DGthe3
Or at least divide it 3 ways. Cars produced by the big 3 and built in North America should get the most, those that are produced by others and imported should get nothing. The rest that are either 'captive imports' or 'transplants' should get 1/2 the deal.
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Originally Posted by Dragoneye
The companies' country of operation/HQ and general profit-flow is still very much import/domestic. That's where my issue stems from...
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Originally Posted by DGthe3
Very true. However, shouldn't governments help their own companies before they help foreign ones, regardless of the economic climate or the particular industry?
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In theory, the first cities cropped up when people came together to protect the rights of the community. The barbarians who stayed out in the jungles, deserts, and forests were outsiders to the law.
In today's economy, each country is its own city. Outside contributions are more welcome than they were 6,000 years ago, but we fly our own nations' flags and take pride in our heritages.
The United States should protect its own economy before it protects its neighbors. It is just like those airplane pamphlets that tell you to put the mask on your face before the child next to you. You can't count on your neighbors to cover your back first, and it just makes more sense to cover your own. We can't all cover one another's back. There's no hard feelings in that.
To implement this policy, the US needs to protect major contributors to the US economy. From a policy policy perspective, there are 2 solutions to this predicament. The first is to invest in big business. The second is to invest in small businesses. Both are enormous contributors to the US economy, but small businesses are hard to justify helping. While you can cut one big check to Walmart and its buyers, you have to cut many checks to small groceries and their buyers. That costs manpower to pay for all the people accepting applications for the grants that would go to these small businesses.
That all assumes the money goes to the businesses. If the money goes to the people, then there's no application process, saving lots of money. It just goes to everyone, usually in the form of write-offs through the IRS.
Once again, it is important to consider where the money goes. Simply expecting Americans to spend money does not mean that people will do something with it to boost the economy. In fact, during hard times, people are far more likely to save their resources, further stifling the hopes for economic improvement. Free money must be guided in a certain way.
Cars are necessary. Encouraging people to buy cars is a good way to use the money. There are lots of other ways, but they are harder to gauge. Those other means are also necessities, like groceries. You can't write off groceries in the same measurable way, so I'll go ahead and commend the US Congress for making this call.
The last part of this analysis is to set the sights on what companies best serve America's interests. As I've said previously, it is impossible to count on another country to give the US money. To be more specific, it is impossible to count on another country giving tax breaks for buying American. Since there is no incentive to help others first by encouraging people to buy foreign, the US should be encouraging in investments that give all of their tax money back to the US government so that the government can continue to invest in its people.
Therefore, I agree that the US should be giving the money to US companies. These companies invest more in the US than foreign ones, regardless of what Subaru, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, or any other ads say about building factories here.