John Judis at TNR's The Plank criticized the Bush Administration's foot-dragging on passing financial assistance for Ford, GM, and Chrysler. He made comparisons to Reagan's move to protect US chip makers from Japanese competition and then said:
American workers and engineers will lose their ability to compete in a major durable goods industry--and that’s not a good thing.
Other countries seem to understand this. French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced a $33 billion bailout package yesterday. France is not in as bad shape as the United States, but Sarkozy is worried about the French auto industry and is promising to protect it in exchange for a commitment from it to produce cars in France rather than to outsource the production of them.
I'm not sure that styling our government's intervention in the economy after the French is a good idea. This is the same country whose laws have created a black market in labor since they have a national limit on how many hours a person can work. That's like our minimum wage laws in the United States that prevent Americans willing to work for less, but end up losing out to illegal immigrants or see their jobs shipped overseas.
We should not decrease our participation in the competitive marketplace. Sure, we win some and we lose some and our automakers are losing right now. But to say that we can't still compete in design and that we'll be relegated to assembly is selling American ingenuity far too short. Our country has thrived in a competitive market, and while we've taken some hits, we'll be better off staying in the fight than refusing to participate.
