Of course, everything under the sun in the known universe which is bad, is the fault of George W. Bush. We need look no further! Well, I for one, will no longer make excuses for him! I promise to never again vote for George W. Bush for any elected office! Now that we've settled that, maybe we can have an adult conversation about the actual TOPIC of the thread, in an honest and objective way?
The American auto industry has been floundering for decades... do you not remember Chrysler going bankrupt, and Lee Iaccoca rebuilding the company back in the 80s? George W. Bush was on a cocaine binge and AWOL from the guard when American auto execs decided to build behemoth gas-guzzlers instead of more fuel efficient vehicles like the Japanese, back in the late 60s, how could he have possibly influenced that? Then there is the nature of the product and how it was marketed and produced... Auto execs will admit, back in the 60s, cars were made to last 100k miles... they intended you to trade them in on newer models often. The engineering and such, was not targeted at making a high quality machine, but rather, something that would last a few years, so you would have to buy another. Meanwhile, the Japanese (and European) strategy, was to make a car that was designed to last. A completely different objective and market strategy, and this caused a decline in American automotive purchases, while imports became increasingly more popular. Even with tariffs and restrictions, the imports still compete strongly, and have forced American auto makers to rethink their strategy. In recent years, American auto quality has improved, but the perceptional damage is done, it will take years to restore faith with the consumer.
An earlier point was made about the auto industry in the South, this is another factor of economics and business. Why is Detroit a ghost town, but West Point, Georgia just added 1,500 new jobs? Americans are still building cars.... they are just building Kias, Hyundais, Toyotas, BMWs, and Mercedes, and in the South, where there is less labor union influence.
