TRUTH NOW: Made in AMERICA

Every once in a while, I see a car bearing bumper sticker, "Buy American." From what I gather, it is a popular sticker in Michigan, especially in cities like Detroit and Pontiac.

"Americans have to pull together," we are told. "They ought to help each other. If they don't stop buying those foreign imports, they're going to kill the U.S. economy." In other words, "What's good for General Motors is good for America."

But Americans have this distressing tendency — one shared by buyers in every nation in the world — to buy what they regard as bargains, irrespective of "Made in U.S.A." stickers. When Americans "buy American," they have in mind something very specific: "Buying what this American chooses to buy." They are only slightly concerned with buying what another American chooses to manufacture.

Does this indicate a lack of patriotism? Did all those people who bought Volkswagens in the 1950s deal the national interest a body blow? After all, they could have bought De Sotos, or Studebakers, or Packards. Why, they could even have bought Hudsons. But they didn't.

Are we willing to modify ex-GM President Charles Wilson's famous phrase? Are we willing to declare, retroactively, that "What's good for Hudson is good for America"? Would anyone buy that bumper sticker?

For over two decades, foreign auto manufacturers sold products that saved on gasoline. Americans in the 1950s didn't pay much attention to them. The gas-guzzler was a national institution, a 75-miles-per hour, 15-miles-per-gallon temple to the promise of unlimited growth and 5 per cent GNP increases, compounded annually, forever. Now some people argue that the gas-guzzler is innately evil, a destroyer of energy supplies. But Americans don't need stern lectures from Volvo-driving sociology professors to teach them about the evils of the gas-guzzler. They get this lesson clearly enough every time they drive up to a gas pump.

-excerpt by Gary North found on http://www.lewrockwell.com/.