Good money after bad. Sigh.

I always enjoy your refreshing voice of reason! I will concede that “betrayal” is too harsh of a term, but I have strong feelings about people who intentionally harm my country. Furthermore, I couldn’t agree more with you that the U.S. government has failed at resolving trade inequities. I really hope our new president does exactly as you say.

Perhaps you think that calling me “stupid” convinces everyone that you are correct, and saying “PERIOD” means that the debate has ended and you have won. In reality, if you want to convince people of the validity of your point of view, you need two essential ingredients: facts and people skills.

The facts that I have are that Japan has a history of protectionist trade policies and subsidies to their domestic industries. This gives their industries a tremendous unfair advantage in the U.S. market. Their distorted cost structure is what has historically allowed them to provide more quality for a lower price. But, even at such a disadvantage, U.S. industry has been catching up in recent years.

When you buy Japanese products instead of similar American-made products, American industry suffers. If we were talking about a nation that trades more fairly (like Canada), they would reciprocate, give our products a fair chance to be sold in their country, and the gains from the exports would balance out the losses from the imports. But Japan doesn’t reciprocate (otherwise, they wouldn’t have such huge trade surpluses). This weakens our whole society, because less jobs are available to support our families, and less tax money is available for social programs, infrastructure, and national defense.

That is why I contend that, when reasonable alternatives are available, but you choose to weaken America’s economy just to get a better deal for yourself, you are betraying your country.

Instead of forcing GM to build cars in Detroit they will look at the costs and say, “If we build down south our numbers look better and the stock price will go up”.

Then again, if they don’t have top executives making those decisions they will most likely not make the best decisions.

Now contrast this to Chrysler’s new directors having to compete head-to-head with the Japanese and their cut-throat competitiveness and razor sharp management style. Good luck Chrysler!

I’m certainly no bleeding-heart liberal, but these patriotism accusations flying around the comments are ridiculous. I think it is stupid that many people blindly buy foreign cars because they have misconceptions about American cars. However, it is even more stupid to accuse people of traitorous behavior for simply buying a Japanese car. Japan, especially since their “lost decade” is not a threat to the US. With China you might have a point, but even then it would be very tenuous. Maybe those people lack sufficient national pride, but traitor is not a word to be used lightly.

I agree Elon can’t be expected to give GM public credit especially considering the Fisker tie to GM. But would Elon be better served by not publicly throwing stones at a car company that the government is a very big stakeholder in? Tesla has applied for a $350M government loan financing facility to help finance the Tesla Model S production. In theory Tesla throwing stones at GM should not influence the government decision to provide Tesla a loan but in practice….well you know how that goes.

I’m a big Tesla fan (and Volt fan). I give Elon credit for getting behind Tesla and following through with getting the Tesla Roadster into production. There is only a 200 AER mile gap and $10,000 cost premium gap preventing the Tesla Model S from being a near perfect Electric Car for a very wide consumer base. Those gaps disappear over the next five years if Tesla is moderately successful with the Model S. For all that to happen, Tesla needs the cash to build the Model S.

Putting aside the question if the government should be in the business of providing car companies loans, I can think of no automaker more technically qualified than Tesla to receive an EV government loan grant. Tesla getting or not getting the ~$350M government grant loan will be a test of how even handed the Obama administration is towards aiding EV development.
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Is every product you buy American? Take a look around your house, I’m guessing the answer is no. I’m a big consumer. I buy a lot of consumer products and some American some not. Cars are just not something I happen to buy American.

But you’ll be happy to know for the first time in my life I am considering buying an American car. A Tesla. Not because I feel obligated, but because someone finally made a car I really want to buy that happens to be made here!