In today's news: Toyota USA's charitable foundation has given over $317,000 to a school environmental program, part of the $100 million it earmarks for charitable donations to education.
Thus begins my rant for today: people who won't buy import cars because "they send all that money back to Japan".
I just got back from a tour of the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana, where the company builds the Outback, Legacy, Tribeca and the Toyota Camry. The president was obviously from Japan, but none of the hundreds of workers I saw appeared to be. Rather, they all looked like local, corn-fed Indiana men and women. When it was quitting time, they went out to the parking lot and got into their vehicles (which were overwhelmingly Chevrolet trucks), which I'm guessing they bought with their Subaru wages. They were probably going home to houses bought with their pay. Maybe they'd stop on the way and do some shopping with money they'd received in return for their labor at Subaru, too.
Last week I drove along Ontario's Highway 401, past the massive Toyota plant that's being built in Woodstock. The construction workers didn't look like they'd been imported from Japan. I doubt the truckloads of construction materials came from overseas, either. And once the plant is operational, I don't believe the workers screwing the cars together will be brought over from the land of the rising sun. Instead, Toyota will be paying Canadian wages, supporting Canadian suppliers, paying Canadian taxes, and signing local contracts for everything from the toilet paper in the bathroom to the food in the cafeteria. And I'll go out on a limb and say that the almost inconceivable mountain of money it took to build that plant came from Canadian sales of Toyota products. Who knows? Maybe some of it even came in from Japan.
Hate the imports if you like; that's your prerogative. Just don't hide it behind this crap about none of that money being spent here.
And for that matter, don't forget to use your favorite line when you buy your GM, Ford or Chrysler vehicle. Using the prevailing logic, the Big Three take the profits of every vehicle sold in Canada and immediately ship them back to their head offices in Michigan -- sending your money back to a foreign country.
