Recently Toyota has started advertising how they now have 10 plants in the US. They are trying to get everyone to accept that they are just as American as Apple Pie and any other car manufacturer. It must be working too, since everyone I talk to that purchases a foreign car says "but I think it was assembled here." That's great, but how much of the profits stayed here? This is what I want to know and am trying to find out.
So far I only have one dated example. I had a professor in my senior year of my undergrad in Management 440 at UWEC that really drove this point home. We'll call him "Mr. W". Apparently, Mr. W did a pretty extensive study on the profits and taxes that foreign automakers encounter while selling vehicles in the USA. According to his findings, in 2000, I told you it was dated, the average dollars that returned back to Japan was $14,000 per car when combining the profits of all Japanese cars regardless of class and model. Now I say apparently, because I can't remember the sources and data set he used to confirm on my own. Which is where you come in; if you come across any of this information in news, books, TV, or on the bathroom wall of a bar, let me know. I want to try and figure this issue out again. Mr. W seemed like he had a lot of integrity. However I want to confirm and I want to see what has happened since 2000. With foreign-car market share increasing year over year, what are the impacts of cars that are built here versus cars that are imported on our economy? How much of the profits on average per car get sent back to the mother country of the Rising Sun? I will continue my searching, if you come across anything, shoot me an
email.
Another side note here is an interesting thing about Japanese car taxes that I also learned from Mr. W. If a car is manufactured in Japan and stays there it is subject to higher taxes than if it is built to be exported from Japan. Okay not too out of the ordinary but still makes you think. What if we wanted to import cars to Japan? The professor above, "Mr.W", does this each year with a group of business men. (He was one of those guys that donated his teaching salary since he was already retired from a Fortune 500 company and had pet projects like teaching and importing cars to Japan to keep busy.) Each year they buy a brand new Cadillac and import it to Japan. By the time that it passes all inspection costs and import taxes they have to sell the Caddy for a minimum of $245,000 USD just to break even. Kind of one sided huh? Anyways, hopefully some of my research will shed some light on this subject too.
FYI- I am not totally anti foreign manufacturer, heck one of my motorcycles is a Kawasaki. Okay so I do treat it a bit like a red-headed step-child compared to my other vehicles, but I am trying to be opened minded. I just feel like everyone is using this tag line of "it was assembled here" to make themselves feel better. About what exactly? That is what I want to know. Overall, I just don't buy what Toyota and everyone is saying and want to learn for myself. Only 3.4% of the US workers are in the auto industry but since 1 out of every 10 jobs overall is some how tied/linked to the US auto industry, you might be curious too. (2004 US Auto Industry Stats
http://www.pittsburghmultimedia.com/auto/index.cfm)
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The Living Room is done! Man is it nice to have a place to hang out and watch movies and TV again! The only problem is, I like to hang out and watch movies and TV again! We did the usual, new... everything. The floors turned out amazing thanks to JB's Flooring who happens to be our neighbor and friend John. We hope to come back and put a sliding door out to a patio but it will be at least next summer before that can happen. Steph and Mom (Foster) did the faux painting work.
