Quote Originally Posted by jockeys View Post
fair enough. i don't see the problem. america, apparently, sucks at making cars when it comes to japan, germany, etc. so maybe we should try to do other things we don't suck at. that's the essence of business. if america can't remain competitive, america can't remain competitive. simple as that. just because we have a history that involves having done something right in the past is no guarantee that we're still any good at it, and certainly not a blank check to not innovate and remain competitive.

it's that sort of complacence that has caused, imo, the american auto industry to be so staggeringly non-competitive.



/offtopic-> hutch, i love the domo-kun avatar. very fark.
Agreed. By all means, let's try to find something we don't suck at. Hmmm.

But remember -- we're competing against countries that have coherent economic plans and that routinely help their industries with market incentives, technological and other subsidies, and tariff protection. The fact that we don't have a plan shouldn't be read to mean that we don't need a plan.

This business of letting our critical industries sink or swim on their own is, I believe, one of the signal weaknesses of Hayakian economic theory. As far as I'm concerned, failure to come up with an economic plan at this stage represents doing more of what got us into this mess to begin with.

j