As an American, One should Only purchase American cars to preserve and encourage American Business

Thanks Pro, for your quick response. 1. Pro is still a xenophobe "The reason you should support American businesses is because you live here." Non-sequitur. Geopolitical boundaries are totally arbitrary. There is absolutely no reason why I should care more about John Smith than Juan Sanchez just because they live on opposite sides of an imaginary line drawn in the sand. Point stands: vote Pro if you hate brown people. "By purchasing America goods you keep money in the United States rather than sending it to foreign companies, further devaluing the dollar." Why should I care if the dollar gets devalued? I'm invested in gold, Chinese stocks, and various commodities. It won't hurt me. In fact, buying foreign won't necessarily hurt the dollar either. Let's say Country A deals only in currency unit X. Country B deals only in currency Y. If Bob Jones living in Country A purchases goods or services from Country B using currency X, the good folks in Country B are faced with three options: make X legal tender so people can use it domestically, sit on currency X and invest it or do nothing with it, or use currency X to buy more stuff from Country A. If Country B chooses the first option, increased demand for X will raise its value. If Country B chooses the second option, decreased supply of X will raise its value. 2. Buying foreign can be economically beneficial "As mentioned in the point above the dollar is becoming less and less valuable." As I already explained, buying foreign doesn't hurt the dollar. Even if it did hurt the dollar, I still don't care. "In the long run this will cause you to have to spend more ad more money on these cars each time." If that's the case, the whole point is a non-issue. As foreign cars become more and more expensive, people will be less and less inclined to purchase them. Even if Pro is right, I can take the money I saved from buying foreign, invest it elsewhere, and reap the benefits from the falling dollar. Alternately, if I'm feeling patriotic, I can take that same money and invest it in America, benefiting my country. I get to have my cake and eat it too! 3. Buying foreign doesn't necessarily hurt American workers "No matter where the car is actually made, the real money goes to the company headquarters, and the leaders of these companies." Not true. The workers have to be paid, right? Some of it will go to the company headquarters, but not all of it. In fact, not even a majority of it.[1] "Foreign companies are based in foreign countries with foreign leaders who will most likely not use that money to buy American goods." What will they use it for then? As I explained in contention 1, no matter what they do, it will benefit America in one way or another. 4. Comparative advantage "To start off with these American companies will not quit, and we will not be able to change that." Oh yeah? They will if they go bankrupt as a result of their inability to successfully compete. "Most of the people working in this field are already too far specialized in their fields to just drop it and pursue another career." Working on the production line doesn't require a great deal of education. It's unskilled labor.[2] Everyone on the business end -- the accountants, the executives, the financial analysts, etc. -- would be able adapt just as easily to other sectors. It's not only the workers that could be more productively employed, but the machinery as well. "When we trade with outside companies we almost always end up importing much more than we export creating a trade deficit." So what if it increases the trade deficit? As Murray Rothbard explains: "More nonsense has been written about balances of payments than about virtually any other aspect of economics. This has been caused by the failure of economists to ground and build their analysis on individual balances of payments. Instead they have employed such cloudy, holistic concepts as the 'national' balance of payment without basing them on individual actions and balances."[3] If China owns more of America's debt (that is, if it has invested it in bonds), this poses no threat to our economic stability. As I explained previously, having less currency in circulation increases its value. Moreover, an investment is essentially a deferment of present interests in favor of future satisfaction. Once the bonds come to fruition, foreign companies or governments can either re-invest the money or use it to purchase American goods. 5. Protectionism stifles competition and innovation "I am not suggesting we place a tariff on foreign goods, I am suggesting that we, as Americans, stop and consider the economic damage we are doing before we immediately go out and buy a foreign car rather than an American one." It doesn't make any difference. If enough people are suckered into the "buy American" boondoggle, it will have the same economic effect of isolating domestic companies from competition. If only a few people do it, it won't have any impact either way. References: 1. http://biz.yahoo.com... 2. http://www.socialstudieshelp.com... 3. Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State (Nash Publishing), p. 720.