Or because the civilian market is more profitable than low-bid government contracts. Or because the American companies may not have had the production capacity for what the contract called for.
Or (yet again) because they made more money from civilian sales.
Free trade is treasonous.
Let’s take the car market. In the 1970’s every nation had a car manufacturer. I mean industrialized nations. Let’s focus on Europe, America, and Japan.
British cars were unreliable. Shoddily built. And often just ugly or stupid.
The old joke. If you wanted to improve your Jaguar after you buy it. Take it home and tighten up all the bolts that weren’t at the factory.
Along came a bunch of little ugly Japanese cars. But when you went out to go to work. The car started. It ran. When you turned a knob something changed. It worked. The electrical system worked unlike Italian cars. All the cylinders worked in the engine, unlike British cars.
Exciting? No. A pleasure to drive? Not really. It just worked. It was reliable.
People discovered that you could drive somewhere and not have any trouble getting back. It was a revelation.
British Companies being stubborn doubled down on being British. On the design elements that made a car quintessentially British. And all those companies went belly up.
American companies. Some were already in trouble. AMC had a run of awful cars as one example.
But Ford and GM saw the future. They saw what was happening in Europe. And they decided it was time to evolve or die.
That is Free Trade. Competition on the larger playing field.
Ford in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere made lots of good cars. One became the foundation of the iconic Mustang.
The same with GM in those same places. Lots of good cars.
Now it is the 1980’s and most of the English car companies are gone. In America. We are getting the start of the Korean invasion. Cars that were even cheaper than Japanese and about as reliable. Hyundai and later Kia.
By Comparison. French cars didn’t do well in America. Italian cars were hit and miss. Mostly because to buy one you had to accept it was going to be breaking down. A lot. That may be acceptable for a Ferrari. It isn’t really what you want from your commute to work ride.
The Germans. Jesus they built the cars well. It was as if all the other countries had a point where the car was good enough. A little sloppiness at the factory was fine. Not Mercedes. Nor any of the other German brands.
And then you had the safest cars on the road. The Swedish brands. Volvo and Saab. Saab never could get a decent market share. Now they too are gone.
For me. It is like the 1970’s all over again. American companies building big fuel inefficient cars while gas prices rise. I expect that soon we will hear about how American companies are floundering. We will hear the usual protectionist nonsense. While we the taxpayer bail out these vital industries.
Free trade is a chance to expand your markets. Or die if you can’t compete.
