How Can Anyone Be Loyal To The “Domestics” When They’ve Laid Off Thousands?
Jason Lancaster | Apr 29, 2013 | Comments 8
As a long-time fan of the Toyota product, I’ve heard or read hundreds of comments about how Toyota isn’t an “American” company, that buying a Toyota product is hurting the American worker, etc.
I’ve always tried to educate the people who make these statements, explaining that 1) most “domestic” cars aren’t nearly as domestic as they think and that 2) some Toyotas (and Nissans and what have you) are designed, built, and sourced in the USA (like the Tundra).
Yet sometimes this info falls on deaf ears.
So, instead of detailed explanations about where Toyota’s profits go or numerous examples of supposedly imported products winning “most American” awards, I’m just going to talk about two numbers:
-266,536
and
+74,885
The first number? The number of workers fired or laid off by GM, Chrylser-Fiat, and Ford since the year 2000. The second? Workers hired by Toyota, Nissan, Daimler etc.*
*Numbers according to Automotive News
266,536 Jobs Lost?!
It’s appalling to me that the three stalwarts of the American auto industry can lay off 266,000 employees, yet still have ardent defenders. How can anyone talk about buying an “American Made” product from Ford, GM, or Chrysler-Fiat under the guise of supporting the American worker? Those three companies put more than a quarter of a million workers in the street since the year 2000.
To put that number in perspective:
- If each of these 266,536 people earned an average of $60,000 a year, that’s nearly $16 billion in lost wages per year.
- If each of these 266,536 people collected $2,000 a month in unemployment benefits for a period of 18 months before finding a new job, that’s $9.5 billion in government provided benefits to workers who GM, Ford, and Chyrsler-Fiat fired or laid off.
- If each of these 266,536 lost jobs supported 2-3 additional jobs each (school teachers, store clerks, dealerships, etc.), this 266,000 job “contraction” could have actually been about 1 million jobs lost.
Now I realize that GM, Ford, and Chrysler-Fiat were bloated, poorly managed corporations that had to lay off workers in order to stay competitive. It’s called “capitalism,” and I’m all for it.
However, explain to me how it makes sense to be loyal to a group of companies that laid off 266,536 people over the last decade (or so) under the premise of supporting your fellow Americans…cause I don’t get it.
Fortunately, “Imports” Hired 74,885 North Americans
While Ford, GM, and Chrysler-Fiat were busy laying off workers, Toyota, Nissan, Daimler, and others were busy hiring people by the thousands. About 75 thousands, to be precise.
Toyota in particular opened three new auto plants since 2005:
- TMMTX in San Antonio, which builds Tundras and Tacomas
- TMMC in Woodstock, Ontario, which builds Rav4s
- TMMMS in Blue Springs, Mississipi, which builds the Corolla
Is this proof that Toyota is good and Ford, GM, and Chrysler-Fiat are bad? No. It’s just evidence that the whole “I only buy cars made by American companies cause’ I believe in the American worker” argument is nonsense, at least if you think that only your average Ford, GM, or Chrysler-Fiat product is made by the American worker.
Blind loyalty to Ford, GM, and Chrysler-Fiat is mystifying to me for a lot of reasons…this one of them.
Filed Under: Auto News
I love that arguement. Those I do run into claiming American made I say Really? I let them hang themselves and then give them the news and check on NHTSA.com or cars.com and see how much American your vehicle is. My plate at drivers door states Made in USA. Even showing these people the numbers won’t changed their minds. They were programmed as a little kid buy strictly American made Big 3 only. I was brand loyal to GM until my 06 Silverado taught me to get what’s best for me not corporate. It was an expensive learning lesson and now have the knowledge which knowing is half the battle. When going to a dealership knowledge is power. In sales knowledge of your product makes you successful.
Jason,
I really hate the title of this article. It suggests that just because Ford, GM, and Chrysler have had layoffs that we still shouldn’t support American companies. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. We should definitely support companies based in America, especially when there are so many Americans employed by those companies. To be clear, I am not saying that one make has more domestic content than another. I am merely saying that layoffs by a company do not constitute giving up on that company. The federal government just furloughed many of civilian employees, and laid off a slew of air traffic controllers. Are you going to give up on them, too? Non-U.S. based companies have employed a lot of Americans, and that is good. I am not knocking that and I have bought many vehicles built in America by non-American companies. My decision to buy these cars was based on my needs at the time. I did not give up on American companies, they just didn’t make a vehicle to meet my needs at the time.
You mentioned the number of Americans employed by foreign-based companies: I should remind you that few, if any, of the workers employed by these companies were prior employees of the Detroit three. Also, don’t forget that NUMMI closed its doors when Toyota decided it couldn’t make a profit with the factory once GM pulled out. Tacoma production was moved to Mexico and TMMTX. So should we abandon Toyota, too, because they had lay offs? No.
The decision to buy a vehicle is a very personal and passionate one. Sometimes the reasons may make sense, and sometimes they may not. For some, the feeling of supporting an American-based company is very important. For others, its domestic content. If we followed the thinking of the title of this article even more Americans would be out of work. Is that what you want? I doubt that it is. I have a pretty high opinion of you and this site. I don’t think you really want to see your fellow country-men lose even more jobs.
In closing, you are going to be hard pressed to convince the die-hards that a Tundra designed, sourced, and manufactured in America is an American truck. Its just they way it is. The bottom-line is that Toyota is a Japanese-based company. Forget everything else, it IS run by the Japanese. For some, that is enough to label a vehicle “foreign” regardless of assembly and source, and to pledge support to companies based in America. What matters in the end is that America has a strong economy. Do foreign companies add to this? Absolutely. Our nation is stronger in many ways because of it.
Brian – First, thanks for taking the time to write a careful and thoughtful response. I appreciate that.
Second, I think my headline and my article in general take more issue with “loyalty” than purchasing a vehicle, but I suppose I could have drawn that distinction a little more clearly.
So, to recap, my issue isn’t with anyone buying a product from Ford, GM, Chrysler-Fiat, or anyone else. My issue is with the blind loyalty to these products at the expense of considering a product made by Nissan, Toyota, etc. This loyalty is often justified under the guise of “supporting the American worker,” but as the data shows, these companies have done a terrible job supporting the American worker over the last decade or so.
In other words: People shouldn’t buy vehicles made by companies purely because they perceive these companies to be “American” – they should buy them because they’re the best option. As the post shows, all the companies selling vehicles employ American workers, and some of the companies are even hiring MORE workers every year. 🙂
Brian J,
You are talking about fools.
I for one don’t care where any product is made. I buy what works for me. That may be GM or Toyota. When Toyota trucks from Texas suck I will stop buying them and buy a Ford if it’s better. I don’t shop at WalMart, not because I have anything agains them,,,, they just have nothing worth buying.
One thing for sure. Those building trucks don’t lose any sleep over the fact that I do not have the health care or benefits they have but, I am not considered an american if I buy a Toyota truck. Screw them.
The best way to kill American companies is to keep buying crap from them so they can skip facing the reality of the market place. Compete or die.
I don’t care about the UAW or non-represented auto builders, build what I consider to be worth the money of face being out of work. I have to face that every day and so does everyone else.
The RAM 1500 standard cab is built in Mexico, do I care that a person who has one thinks my Tundra made in Texas is not buying American? It’s no wonder America is sliding down the hill.
People are stupid, you can sell them almost anything.
In my area the ford and gm plants have shuttered in the last few years meanwhile the import brands have been opening plants here. While GM is taking bailout money and then building cars in mexico, that makes me angry.
But at the end of the day, the thing has to work and not be falling apart constantly. So there’s really no reason to buy a detroit brand, not even price.
I have never bought a product because I want to show support for its country of origin. I do it because it suits my needs. Truth is, in the end, you don’t matter in they’re decision making.
Larry you hit it pretty good. Personally I was GM loyal and when they treated me like dirt (That’s putting it easy) after buying a $37k LT3 Silverado with all those issues it makes you wonder. Why would I want to buy another product from a company who only cares that you bought the product and as soon as you leave you are forgotten about. You aren’t crap to them. What does it take to fix a falling headliner? It was 11x till I got rid of the truck. That tells me a couple of things. One is that their tewchs are incompetent to fix the issue since GM wouldn’t admit to the issue at hand being these headliners were cut too short and didn’t want to pay the expense of making new ones for those who had this issue. What I seen since then is customers of theirs use duct tape to hold the headliner up. So am I unAmerican because I don’t trust GM? Did they care about me when they asked the question how many GM vehicles I own? To me the question is loaded. If I own more than one GM vehicle you will fix my truck? If I own just the truck I’m worth losing as a customer if they can’t fix the truck? I went with the most expensive truck because I wanted to spoil myself with all the nannies atthe same time owning a truck. My thinking was this was going to be my last truck to buy. I went with Toyota for one reason. PIECE OF MIND. Little do people forget can you buy a Curtis Mathis TV? They were American made. You look no further than your electronics and you can see how American you really are. I did 21 years in the Navy so we as a country have the “RIGHT” to chose what we want. I may not agree with the choice but we have that right and that’s what makes us Americans. Not by the car/truck or house or “PHONE” we have.
Hey, I’ll admit no problems being a GM guy thru and thru prior to 2007, but I even own a 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe. Hyundai is not bad nowadays and was cheap and well built no problems so far and fits my needs for the price. I’ll stack up a few Hyundai vehicles over and above to the other mfgs. in some areas like the elantra, sonata, and tucson and santa fe.
If I thought GM or Ford or Dodge was a good reliable vehicle in my price range, I’d buy it, but haven’t felt that way since 2007 when I had issues right off the bat with my 2007 chevy silverado.