According to this graph, it shows
a clear downhill trend in the top revenues for the “Big Three” between the
years 2005-2008 (1). The Japanese automakers however saw tremendous success. As
a result, revenues for the GM, Ford, and Chrysler are all significantly lower
in 2008 compared to what they were ten years ago (1). Economists noted that, “General
Motors shifted from being the highest revenue earner at $167 billion in 1998
and a high of $184 billion in 2000 to drop down to $122 billion in revenue in
2008—a distant second among automakers” (1). However, all three major Japanese
automakers saw their revenues expand over this period with Toyota increasing
its revenues from “under $100 billion in 1998—a distant third in ranking—to an
astounding record $214 billion in 2008” (1).Toyota is now the largest automaker
in the world and their constant annual
growth of 8 percent in this period seems to show that they were the biggest reason
of the decline of the American carmakers. (1)
These foreign-owned companies such as Kia, Mercedes,
Toyota, Nissan, and Suzuki have actually been somewhat beneficial to particular
southern areas in the United States. Two-thirds of "foreign
imports" are, in fact, built in the United States in nonunion shops, where
it costs at least $2,000 less in labor to build each vehicle (2).
Americans claim that the Japanese, Korean, and German auto
companies are taking advantage of desperate communities in the South. But among
people in West Point, Ga. disagree.
"Workers [in the South] understand that in order for
them to have a job these companies have got to make money, because if they
don't, they're not going to have a job," says Rep. Lynn Westermoreland
"That's the first issue [Detroit auto executives] need to address before
they come to Congress asking for a bailout or a loan or whatever it is," she
says in a phone interview (2). Around the South and especially here on
Interstate 85 – nicknamed the "autobahn" for the prevalence of
foreign-owned car plants along its stretch – the manufacture of foreign
vehicles has jumped 450 percent since 1986 (2). While the Big Three have lost
more than 600,000 jobs since 1980, foreign automakers have created about 35,000
jobs in the same amount of time (2).
Sources
(1)http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2010/spring/article2.html
(2)http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2008/1205/p01s04-usec.html
(Image) http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2010/spring/article2.html
