Quote:
Originally Posted by chiuchimu
If it was "Ford when bankrupt because it lost to GM" then that's free market economy.
But we are talking about two different countries with different governments, different economies, and different regulations.
Two reasons why it is different between domestic and import competition:
1) Every country has a right to protect itself including it's industries. Otherwise, no third world country, say Mexico, can develop an auto industry of their own. Outside competition like Japan, Korea, U.S. and Europe will squash it before it even has a chance to grow. Ford shouldn't get protection from GM because they are in the same country. If one disappears, the U.S. still has an auto industry. Look at Japan, Outside of Tokyo city, isn't all the phone lines in all of Japan controlled and owned by U.S. companies? That's because the Japanese Government didn't protect it's phone line companies until they were all gone,swallowed up by U.S. companies, until only one was left- I think called "Tokyo Telephone Company". It's all cell phones now, but this did happen.
2) Some countries aid the development of certain industries: pay for R&D, lower taxes, or have lower environmental manufacturing standards. A company that doesn't have to pay for its own research and development can sell there stuff for much cheaper. A good example could be Korea. I'm not 100% sure but heard something that Korean companies like Hyundai and the Korean government work together. This is part of the reason for Korean product success in resent years. Japan had/(might still have) something like that going on too.
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But the standards of manufacturing have to fit with each country's regulations. The reason there are tariffs are go keep what you are describing from happening. I do not know why the tariff imbalance was agreed to on America's side, but if Americans had been forced to only drive American cars when prices were doubling and tripling, the economy would have gone into depression. So you are saying we should have sacrificed the country to save Ford and GM?