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Originally Posted by AlmostFamous
I hate when people make this uneducated statement. Here goes, in a purely economic sense, the money goes home. Meaning, when GM makes a car, the money goes to the stock holders, who are mostly American. When Toyota makes a car, I have no idea who makes the money because I haven't seen the breakdown of stock holders, but I'm guessing its less than half American. However, I would like to point out that whatever nationality has a majority of stock benefits the most. For example, if Americans bought a majority of Toyota stock, Toyota becomes an American company headquartered in Japan. It's not about where its based, its about who owns it. They make the money on it.
Also, before you say "Yeah but Toyota built a factory in my back yard and they gave me a job and fed my puppy and put my kids through college!" please realize that while they might have, they are doing it as a PR move unless you're in design or a white collar job. Manufacturing in the USA by car companies really is stupid. Americans simply out-priced themselves to do work like that. Americans now primarily do skilled labor jobs, service jobs, or have white collar jobs simply because it doesn't take a large degree of formal education to work in manufacturing. The jobs that Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have in America are simply so they can say it was made here.
They could never make the new Tundra in Mexico and pass it off as an "American" truck. It's all PR, they don't really care about the local economy or the US, it just happens to cost less to make the truck in Texas than to suffer lagging sales because its really un-American in a very patriotic segment. What if GM moved Corvette production from Bowling Green? Suddenly its not nearly as American as it claims to be, and sales here fall fast. Car companies only build here to produce the image that people on this thread reflect.
In other words, the money runs home to the stockholders, and building cars in the US is strictly for PR, its not like Toyota or GM truly care about you and your little town. It's all about dividends.
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