>>>>>>>Bear in mind that one of the reasons for assembling vehicles in the US is that politically it would be a problem if all those vehicles where imported.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>True. Now the old stigma against foreign built cars is all but gone. In fact many states, particularly southern ones, enthusiastically lobby foreign carmakers to open plants.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>One interesting aspect of all this is that some of the same senators (McConnell of Kentucky, Shelby of Alabama among others) who have opposed the bailout of Detroit were all for subsidies and tax breaks to foreign companies to build in their states.
>>>>>
>>>>>Very ingenious, Mike. However, you miss that nobody opposed Michigan state picking the tab, e.g. through tax breaks similar to Alabama/Kentucky; and, at the same time, nobody proposed bailout for Toyota or Honda, or even Fed tax breaks to them.
>>>>
>>>>I wasn't criticizing the senators. Their objective has been to bring jobs and (future) tax revenue to their states, which is certainly serving their constituents. It's just that when you take it up a level to the national level, they are helping foreign carmakers and not domestic ones.
>>>>
>>>>Of course the whole issue of whether an auto bailout is a good idea is much more complicated than this.
>>>
>>>If you 'were not criticizing' then what you did? Btw, you again make the same mistake: they didn't 'help foreign carmakers' on national level. On state level, i.e. outside of senators area of control, Ford and/or GM could have every chance to compete for Alabama playground, if it would not be impossible due to labor contracts.
>>>By the way, it is somewhat jingoistic to call e.g Toyota America Corp., bulding dozen plants in USA and Canada and providing well-paying jobs to many fellow citizens, a foreign company that, as your message implies, should be singled out in negative sense by US government.
>>
>>You don't suppose Toyota America Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota, and its profits wind up in Japan, do you?
>
>If you mean gross profits then good part of it go to salary paid, as I mentioned, to American/Canadian workers. If you mean net profits then you are invited to buy Toyota stock readily available for any person, regardless to nationality. In general, I think that foreign company investing in US-based manufacturing is more valuable to America than domestic company investing in non-US based manufacturing.

That must have been just a moment of carelessness because I'm sure you know more about accounting than that. Profit = Revenues - Expenses, with salary being part of expenses.