How Much Is American Patriotism Connected to the Wallet?

From the April 2017 issue

At the Front is a Kentucky firm that sells precise reproductions of WWII uniforms and gear. Not that I’m in the market for an M1938 Tanker Helmet (“Same as those used by Angeline [sic] Jolie’s soon to be ex . . .”), but I am a fan of the company’s snarky emails. The latest one stated that the reason German SS uniforms remain unavailable is “not so much about political correctness as it is the hoards [sic] of raving lunatics with stolen credit cards that they attract.” It also said, in answer to what must be endless questions about why much of ATF’s stock comes from overseas, that it is simply cheaper to import. The company’s been in the business 25 years, and its customers seem to just shrug and keep buying. “Patri­ot­ism is indeed connected to the wallet,” said the email.

A timely observation, perhaps, as a new president rides into office taking potshots at the auto industry for building cars in foreign lands. Well, a certain foreign land just to the south, because so far, the many Chargers, Challengers, and Impalas raining down from snow-white Canada have yet to draw much presidential Twitterage. Just as successive presidents of France have done to preserve a lavishly coddled native industry, Trump threatens crushing tariffs to keep jobs at home.

He’s only the latest Oval Office occupant to smack around the auto industry in the hope of making America greater. Barack Obama wanted us to buy less fuel, so he capi­tal­ized on the industry’s weak negotiating position after the bailouts and got it to agree to tougher CAFE standards. If Obama and Congress wanted the nation to use less oil, they would have raised the fuel tax. But only Obama wanted it, so NHTSA—under the helm of an Obama appointee—raised CAFE standards instead, forcing automakers to build leaner vehicles but not forcing buyers to want them.

If Trump hopes to bring back jobs, he needs to make this an attractive place to make stuff, not wall us off with torn-up trade agreements that will make everything more expensive. Do we want a healthy, agile auto industry or do we want a national jobs program that happens to make cars? This is what they have in France and especially in Russia, where the 45,000 workers at the Renault-Nissan–operated Avtovaz plant that makes Ladas in Togliatti produced about 270,000 vehicles in 2015. By comparison, Toyota, another target of Trump’s tweets, made about 500,000 vehicles in 2015 in its Georgetown, Kentucky, complex employing only 8000 workers.