After reading a gloomy article on the fates of our two auto giants,in FORTUNE, my family ( Four daughters, three sons, their families and the missus) have decided to sell our foreign cars and decided to buy American.For nearly eighty years these companies have meant upward mobility for millions of American families and it is time for us to come to their rescue, and in effect to rescue ourselves, by opening up our pocket books to support our workers and our devastated communities.
For a long time I have joined the chorus complaining about the quality problems and myriad other complaints about their cars.But behind these cars are families just like mine struggling to make a life,better the future for their own children and improve their communities.I have decided to put up with any perceived or real shortcomings of our cars in exchange for hope for our workers and their families.
I live in Indiana, not far from Kokomo and can attest to the fear in the eyes of many of our people there.I urge everyone to please consider buying American and skip all cold blooded arguments.
Buy the best products you can afford. Do NOT reward corporate America for its criminal incompetence. if people have to do without for a while, so be it.
I know this is a harsh thing to say, but here it is…
The longer the U.S. gets away with its game, the worse the crash is going to be. There is going to be SERIOUS belt tightening all around anyway, but if we support this gang of corporate fools…and make no mistake, the inferiority of American products is ENTIRELY the fault of the system, not the workers who have been mis-educated and stymied in every other way as well BY that system…if we support them in their criminality and greed, the crash is going to be epochal in its severity when it comes.
Hunker down and await the storm, folks.
It’s already on its way, and the levees were built by the same assholes who built the Ford Pinto.
Bet on it.
AG
I have seen how in Korea. Japan and quite possibly in China and India in the near future,it is deemed patriotic to buy their own products even if they are inferior.It is only after the domestic manufacturers attain parity or even superiority with the foreign manufactureres that the locals will buy the foreign goods.We seem to impose a harsher standard on our corporations,in effect punishing our workers for the malfeasance of the management.
Realize that foreign manufacturers are currently building thousands of cars here (including Toyota and Honda) and employing thousands of American workers. Any loss of output experienced by Ford and GM will likely be taken up by one of these competitors. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unsympathetic to the plight of these workers, I’ve just suffered too much with domestic vehicles. I would suggest to those seeking a foreign vehicle to go with one of those manufactured here by a foreign manufacturer. I recognize that the union will suffer under this course of action, but domestic manufacturers have nothing that I care to spend thousands of my hard-earned dollars on.
I hear you Klat…..nikto. I have read several of your offerings, and respect/identify with your point of view often. I too struggle with what I should do regarding car purchases. (with the way the environment is going, that dilemma will be taken care of soon enough for all of us) However, while I am still a consumer, and an oil addict (wonder who made me that way?) I am trying to answer the question what is an American Car? Is it the 89 Mercury we had that was made in Ontario, the 91 Taurus made in Atlanta Ga., the 98 Accord made in Ohio, the 2000 Avalon made in Kentucky or the 05 Matrix made in Ontario? As I begin researching the cars available to replace my wife’s Avalon in a year or two, should I consider the Chevy HHR or the Ford/Mercury/Lincoln Fusion/Milan/Zephyr which are made in Mexico? What about the imports I hear are coming via China from GM?
I’m not saying your decision is wrong, I may well come to the same decision myself. What I am wondering about is whether my decision to buy only products from THE BIG THREE would actually convert to saved jobs in the midwest? Or would I simply be loyal to an illusion? Trying to keep keepinon in Michigan.