Buy [Non] American!

So, the Cash For Clunkers deal has not been mentioned recently. I am not one to be completely up to date with mainstream media anyhow. But, I was just looking over statistics from the Cash for Clunkers program, which I know has already been considered a success, and found some interesting things. Take a look at this for yourself: http://www.cars.gov/files/official-information/August26PR.pdf.

What stands out to me in these statistics is what they say about the embarrassingly shameless conduct of American corporations, especially in the automotive sector. Note that although GM and Ford both fell in the top three grossers in the program, Toyota still took number one. The most traded in vehicles were American made (all of the top ten most traded-in were American). The most purchased (overall when you cumulate the stats; Toyota and Honda alone outsell GM and Ford) were foreign. GM and Ford garnered large chunks because they have absorbed other companies over the last year. Of the top ten most popular vehicles purchased, two were American made (both Ford at 4th and 10th place).

American companies have shot themselves in the foot, and just found out there insurance won't cover it (health care reform joke... anyone? Anyone?!). What is known now about these American companies is that they intentionally built failure into their vehicles for the purpose of growing their service sectors and insuring future new vehicle purchases. They were overly naive to think consumers would not notice, and they went bankrupt when the people learned American made cars couldn't outlast any other brand.

Entitlement, once again, fails to succeed. When will we learn from history?