Do you guys think that maybe the government should institute some sort of high protective tariff in the auto market to protect the ailing domestic automakers and help some U.S. workers keep their jobs? Do you guys think it would be effective? To me it seems like a good idea, but then thinking back to AP U.S. History the Tariff of 1816 and the tariff in Henry Clay's American System, which were both high protective tariffs(or were the two tariffs one in the same?), kind of just inspired american industries to charge whatever they wanted for their goods, as long as it was a lower price than the foriegn competition, so I'm not sure.
-Just thought it would be a good topic...

 

I think that would be a pretty bad idea. How about make the "domestic" auto makers actually compete and bring us a better product at a better price.

What you suggest is giving them a crutch and masking the real problem.

"Foreign" auto makers make great products that people want at a price they are willing to pay. "Domestics" do not.

US workers are losing thier jobs because of the above reasons, and because the UAW is killing the "domestic" auto makers.

I use "xxx" because a whole lot of "domestics" are made foreignly, and a lot of "foreigns" are made domesticly.

For example, I can get a Superduty or a Tacoma. Both are make and employ workers in my home state of KY. Only difference is that Ford is laying off people here, and Toyota is hiring.

So which company is actually better for the US worker?

Mike

 

heck no! no tarriffs! so just because the US automakers can't manage themselves, we, as a consumer should be forced to pay higher prices for something?

all the while these tarriffs will keep the average joe american paying more while the US automaker management will continue to rake in millions on their paychecks off of us.

 

Not to mention that the tariff would have to be charged according to the country of origin of the car, not the home office of the company, so it would apply to the Ford Fusion, but not the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord....

 

Interesting topic.

I would say no - our auto industry had tarriff's, which have slowly been removed, did no good for our industry, just made us less competitive on a global market.

 

The Great Depression was triggered by tariffs. History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

 

As the "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons would say............WORST IDEA EVER!

 

Great responses guys, looks like it is unanimous, lol, i just wanted to know how you guys felt about such an idea, and I totally agree about the unions destruction of automakers, Ford especially, with family working for Toyota and friends that work for Ford, I know that Ford pays more, and sells less right now, but the unions will not allow for any type of pay cut that could perhaps save jobs and the company, as such Ford has to use more money to make a vehicle that is allegedly of the same quality as that of Toyota, so it has to sell for more, and when it comes to consumers, who wants to pay more for the same thing? I myself would much rather have any type of Ford over any type of Toyota, because I love the way the fords look and perform in comparison; I would also rather have a Chevy or a Dodge than a Toyota for the same reason.

 

if there should be penalties on anything, it should be on these US companies that outsource just to squeeze more money out of US consumers.

look at 2 examples, nike shoes and apple i-pods, both are american companies but yet make their product in china at a low wage but yet still sell the product at a high price here as if the product was still made by higher paid american workers.

now, if the US somehow slapped a windfall penalty on companies that do this, say the cost of the wage difference the comapny is supposly saving, the company then will have less incentive to outsource overseas.

now everyone will scream "its a global economy!" not so...its a global labor market, not a global economy, the US and other high end industrial countries are the biggest consumers of goods made in these third world cheap labor countries. if we remove these american sponsored jobs from these countries and move them back into the US, than that is just like priming the pump, more US workers equal more US purchasing power for these goods, and like wise with other industrial countries.

 

In fairness to the above example - they only charge that much, because people are willing to pay that much (thanks to good marketing).

You say greedy company - I say stoopid consumer...