Saving American Jobs

[lord_sephiroth]

Every car sold in america MUST meet OUR federal highway safety regulations. They all have seat-belts and they all have airbags now. This in not international law, its our law. Why do foreign car makers put it seat belts and air bags when they don't have to in order to sell cars in their country? Because they want to sell cars in our country,

Comments

[alaria_lyon]

I 95% agree with you. I'm not sure where my 5% is, except perhaps that they minimum wage in those countries could not be equal to ours, it would have to be proportionate to their economy (for instance $5 there could equal $100 here, so their minimum wage would have to be equivelant to ours here). Also I don't see unions cropping up in communist countries, but I could be wrong. Don't forget though that not all workers have unions in this country. Child labor I totally agree with, but with that you also need public education.

[stealthdozer]

Actually, US safety standards lag behind the standards set for European automobiles. When European manufacturer's import Saab's, Volvo's, BMW's, Mercedes Benz, etc., all that are added to them are a governor to limit the top speed to around 155mph (or so), & a catalytic converter, which may or may not work to reduce pollution, & only slightly reduces the available horsepower of the engine.

These two items: the governor & the catalytic converter, represent the total sum of the alterations that European manufacturers must meet in order to import their vehicles to the US market. In fact, it is the US auto manufacturers that are resisting the higher standards of vehicles that the Europeans have achieved. For example, in the white-hot SUV market, these vehicles, most of which are never used as light trucks or off-road, are classified as Light Trucks by the US Government at the bidding of the US auto industry. The Light Truck classification allows SUV to meet lesser safety, environmental, fuel economy standards. Also, if memory serves,

[lord_sephiroth]

I think your simplfying the truth a little here. Volvo, Saab, BMW, and Mercades Benz seem to have a tradition of safty development. But my reasearch doesn't show any push from their respective governmentsfor this development. By 1966 the US had federal regulations for cars sold in the U.S. While Volvo (etc) already and met and surpassed these regulations, Toyota, Honda, MG, Alpha Romeo (Japanese and British cars for the most part) did not. Your right, most European car manufactures are ahead of the US regulations (well...Italian cars not so much...but lets not even go there). The first Seat Belts were on Volvos and the first Airbags were on Mercades Benz. But now virtually all cars manufactured in the world have these features reguadless of their nations vehicle safty laws. Agruablely to make their product more attractive to a US or international market. I merely argue the same initiative for labor.