Buy American! A conventional, well-intentioned, patriotically affirming sentiment. We've heard it all our lives. But unless you crave less competition, fewer choices, and higher prices, it's also a completely irrational one.
Naturally, then, as we kick off "Recovery Summer! Part Deux," the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee says that buying homemade cars is a matter of national importance. "If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz explained while defending the protectionist auto/union bailout. "They would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes." (And by "we," Wasserman Schultz, proud American, is talking about herself and her sweet Japanese-made Infiniti FX35.)
As if that weren't enough, those who oppose this brand of corporate welfare, according to Wasserman Schultz, also reject the very idea of "American exceptionalism." Now, one might argue that those who claim we must bankroll a few politically favored companies because an entire manufacturing sector could collapse are the ones skeptical of American ingenuity, perseverance, and exceptionalism.
But God, evidently, loves the Volt and the Volt only. And Americans"”people who can do almost anything, including, but not limited to, electing politicians who keep rotten companies buoyant for political gain"”have a patriotic duty to buy poorly conceived automobiles. You have an obligation to insulate Washington's favorite companies from responsibility. For God and for country, taxpayers must purchase cars from corporations that have not come close"”despite the contention of the administration"”to paying back what they already owe you.
But hey, the car was assembled in Michigan. If that's not a sign of American exceptionalism, I don't know what is.
Even if Wasserman Schultz's "Buy American" rhetoric were genuine, it would be severely misguided. Every time we overpay for an American-made product (whatever it is), don't we also spend less on an array of other services and products that create jobs at home? Real jobs. Self-sustaining jobs. If we all mechanically bought American, wouldn't we allow manufacturers to avoid competition and rely on their locations rather than the excellence of their products? Sounds like the opposite of exceptionalism.
Companies on the dole also have incentive to please their benefactors in Washington"”a place that has the power to offer more handouts or to stifle competition. Like much of modern liberalism these days, a socially responsible outcome is far more important than a profitable one. Business is for social good, not for profit-mongering. We have no clue what's good for us, anyway. These companies, though, have less incentive to keep prices low or to innovate or to meet consumer demand.
Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman once explained in his book Pop Internationalism that if he could stress one thing to students, it would be that "international trade is not about competition, it is about mutually beneficial exchange." Wasserman Schultz is bright, so she must know all about the counterproductive history of protectionism. Then again, when she says "Buy American," maybe she just means "Buy Union""”buy union because taxpayers subsidize GM and it pays workers and they subsidize unions that subsidize the right candidates. A mutually beneficial exchange.
Or maybe"”like most Americans, however inclined they are to embrace populist rhetoric regarding trade during tough times"”Wasserman Schultz acts rationally when spending her own money. Now if only that rationality could seep into her political life, we'd be a lot better off.
David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Blaze. Follow him on Twitter @davidharsanyi.
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In Wasserman's defense, it is not exactly like Infinity is a Japanese sounding name. How was she supposed to know it wasn't an American car? What is more American than Infinity? And besides she said people should by American sounding cars. So it is all good.
She didn't say Americans should buy any sort of cars.
She said that without the bailout, there wouldn't be a domestic auto industry.
Hey look, an idiot is confusing obnoxious niggling with being smart. Isn't that fucking special.
Your butt still hurts from the fact-pwnage I gave you yesterday?
Do people still seriously say "pwnage"?
I thought that had pretty much joined "rad" in the list of "things people only say when they're trying to be 'ironic'"
Oooh, burn!
What a face!
Only you would count a serious reading comprehension deficiency as 'pwnage'. Go play some MW2 now.
And that's just as stupid.
Maybe even more so.
I'd rather argue about things that she actually said, rather than one of Glenn Beck's idiots' moronic interpretation of what she said.
No you wouldn't, dipshit. You'd rather bring up irrelevancies and then smugly claim victory.
That is his move. It is not like he has anything else. Got to go with your move.
PWNAGE
You seem to think factual accuracy is irrelevant. That must make libertarianism much easier to swallow!
And Danny connects with a harsh insult! PWNAGE
Oh look a new troll. Cool, let's see if he can step up his game though. I'm not amused so far.
All the talk about PWNAGE makes this clown sound like joe.
He looms large!
Could this be Tony?
He hasn't threatened to take a swing at me yet. Our talked about how well he did at the Short Bus State Debate Finals.
I doubt he would show his gorilla mask around here, what with the stellar job Obama's doing.
Curse your nimble hands etc. etc.
No domestic auto industry except for those millions of cars that BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, and Suburu produce in the US.
Son, fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.
There is more to the auto industry than simply putting cars together. Where do the parts for those foreign cars get made? Where do they get designed?
Where do you think the parts for a Ford come from? All over the world dipshit. No car is made in "one country".
So there's no difference between a car that is made with 80% domestic parts and one that's made with 20% domestic parts to the US economy?
PWNAGE
Stop crying.
Actually, I haven't cried at all. I thought you cared about facts? PWND
What the fuck is it to you? Who cares if we make cars? We are the biggest manufacturer in the world despite being mostly a service based economy.
Besides I thought leftists cared most about the stalwart proletarians on the assembly lines. Do they really want the fat cats to be American too?
derider - dont miss the hate. libtoids HATE union employees regardless of sector. the HATE is all that really matters for them.
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