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What About The Government "Bailout" Of Foreign Automakers?
FDL's Jane Hamsher has an article on Huffington Post (with this title) presenting an angle to the automotive issue I'd never seen before. Apparently foreign automakers are already incentivized with tax dollars to compete with our own corporations.
What I didn't realize is that our own state governments were also funding these same companies with taxpayer dollars.
An interesting fact offered by a HuffPo commenter: "From 1981 to 2005 Michigan got back $.85 for every dollar in taxes sent to the federal government. Alabama got $1.71 for every dollar sent to the federal government." Alabama gives around $700 million per year to foreign manufacturers.
I don't know what, if any, bearing this has on the bailout, but I think it's worth asking...Are the decks being stacked against our own automakers?
I'm really pretty uninformed on the economics of the issue. But I do know that Japan, Germany, and Korea all routinely finance their automakers - especially R&D. So essentially, our companies have to spend profits on things competitors receive government funding for. When you think about it, no wonder they have been innovating. I don't know about Japan, but Korea even has market protection for their vehicles.[in Alabama] We have Hyundai Motor Company that got $252 million in incentives. Toyota there got $29 million in incentives. Honda, $158 million and Mercedes $253 million in incentives. It just seems odd to us that we can help the financial institutions in this country and that we can offer incentives to our competitors to come here and compete against us but at the same time, we are willing to walk away from an industry that is the backbone of our economy.
What I didn't realize is that our own state governments were also funding these same companies with taxpayer dollars.
An interesting fact offered by a HuffPo commenter: "From 1981 to 2005 Michigan got back $.85 for every dollar in taxes sent to the federal government. Alabama got $1.71 for every dollar sent to the federal government." Alabama gives around $700 million per year to foreign manufacturers.
I don't know what, if any, bearing this has on the bailout, but I think it's worth asking...Are the decks being stacked against our own automakers?
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Politico and TPM have kept on this. Yes, other socialist/Democratic nations like us, have been more forthright in publication of their bailouts instead of hiding them in 5,000 pages of legislation that nobody reads. We just need voting stock, voting rights and an audit function in exchange for making the nation-corporate alliance more palatable.
December 4, 2008 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
In addition, many of those nations provide for all employee healthcare benefits, another matter that is crushing the American automotive industry amongst many others. Universal healthcare would level the playing field in enumerable industries, and people are finally getting onboard with the notion.
December 5, 2008 2:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Combination of thoughts results to a better outcome. Even foreigners have their own realm, we could not say that they don't have anything to help.Who knows, the hidden key is theirs...Ever thought about using Forex trading? Forex trading is using foreign exchange, in other words currency trading. How it works is that you put in some cash advances in one form of currency, exchange for another or several others and wait for the value to either drop or increase. Then, once conditions are to your advantage, you reconvert back to the original currency for profit. You could double the money you put into the market. Typically you start with dollars (American), pounds Sterling (British) or Euros (Europe...obviously) and watch it for a few days. Profits skimmed from your Forex trades could keep you from needing cash advances for awhile.
April 7, 2009 6:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Combination of thoughts results to a better outcome. Even foreigners have their own realm, we could not say that they don't have anything to help.Who knows, the hidden key is theirs...Ever thought about using Forex trading? Forex trading is using foreign exchange, in other words currency trading. How it works is that you put in some cash advances in one form of currency, exchange for another or several others and wait for the value to either drop or increase. Then, once conditions are to your advantage, you reconvert back to the original currency for profit. You could double the money you put into the market. Typically you start with dollars (American), pounds Sterling (British) or Euros (Europe...obviously) and watch it for a few days. Profits skimmed from your Forex trades could keep you from needing cash advances for awhile.
April 7, 2009 6:29 AM | Reply | Permalink