Clunkers out of cash.

[goof2]

Originally Posted by Sean

And the profits and tax revenue go back to Japan. # of people employed is only part of the equation.

I'm pretty sure Toyota gets taxed on their operations here in America. You also realize that in order to get taxed you actually have to make money, something the domestics have shown they are unable to do.

To continue with profits, those do three things. First is help stock value. Tied to that is the second, allow a company to pay dividends. Considering Toyota is publicly traded any American can take advantage of both of those by purchasing Toyota stock. The third is reinvest in operations. Toyota has shown themselves willing to do that in America, and I would argue they have been more willing to do that than any of the domestics. GM seems to like Canada. Ford seems to be a fan of Mexico. Chrysler will soon be banging their heads against a wall trying to get foreign built Fiats to pass American crash tests.

It is hard to discredit what Toyota and other foreign automakers do for America when the domestics are hard at work grabbing tens of billions in bailout money. At least the foreign builders (outside of Nissan) aren't costing the taxpayers money.