Study: Japanese Auto Industry Major Contributor To U.S. Economy
The mantra before, during, and after the bailout was (and still is) that without the bailout, gadzillions of jobs would have vanished, the American car industry would have been wiped out, wheels would have come off the arsenal of democracy, and the sky would have fallen into Lake St. Clair. Of course, that’s nonsense. There are more than enough other carmakers in America. They would have received the sales, and added the jobs. They would have been mostly non-union jobs though.
The truth is, without the bailout, the UAW would have vanished, and with it millions of Democratic votes.
Rutgers University professor Thomas Prusa says that the much maligned Japanese auto industry in the United States “has emerged as a major contributor to the U.S. economy.” In a new study, the professor says that the Japanese auto industry is “responsible for 1.2 million U.S. jobs based on the U.S. production and sales for Japanese-branded automakers,” and that these jobs generate over $76 billion in annual compensation.
Rather than posing risks to U.S. jobs, “the Japanese-branded automobile companies have increased the international competitiveness of all U.S. auto and auto parts workers,” the study says.
Declares the professor:
“While many parts of the U.S. automobile industry have struggled in recent years, the Japanese-branded auto segment has emerged as an important job creator and a leading contributor to the United States economy. The role of Japanese-branded automakers’ investment has grown significantly over the past two decades. In the mid-1980s less than 15% of the Japanese-branded automakers’ U.S. automobile sales were produced in North America. Today approximately two-thirds of the Japanese-branded automobiles sold in the United States are built in North America. Moreover, Japanese-branded automobile plants account for nearly 40% of all U.S. automobile production.”
The study was prepared for the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. Spool-up the prayer mills!
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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"The truth is, without the bailout, the UAW would have vanished, and with it millions of Democratic votes." What, if the American marques went under, the unions would immediate dissolve and their constituents would be fired into the sun? 1. Not every union member votes Democrat. Some are self-defeating Republicans for reasons I will never understand. 2. Just by being out of a job, those who do vote Democrat don't suddenly lose their vote as well. How fucking stupid are you? Where do you get these ideas? I was directed toward this site on the premise that it was a more mature version of Jalopnick. Instead of hearing unbiased reviews of cars, all I ever see in my RSS feed is economic and political horseshit by obvious college drop-outs, or even worse, sad-sack hacks who jerk off the Wealth Of Nations and think us sheeple are stupid for not voting for Ron Paul. If you really want to play amateur economist on an automotive site, why not talk about the rise in sub-prime auto financing, pay-here-buy-here scam dealers, the increase in warranty denial by subtle modifications or imagined modifications? But no, you'd rather interview to fill Brock Yates' and David E. Davis' shoes as an industry shill. What a crock.
Apparently these days, we need studies to confirm the obvious.