Plant opening

A tale of two auto industries:

The rise of Honda's mammoth new car plant in America's farming heartland is a stark contrast to the layoffs and plant closings announced in recent months by General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC.

But for the Honda workers here, their jobs -- with a starting wage of $18.41 an hour -- are just as much part of the U.S. auto industry as those at their imperiled Detroit competitors. They just don't get as noticed.

"GM has laid off and cut back how many people and Honda is building a plant. What is Honda doing right? Maybe they should look at this model and learn something instead of getting a bailout," shrugged new Honda worker Larry Giles, 41.

Besides the hilarity of watching the left agressively advocate for corporate welfare, another amusing aspect of the auto bailout debate is the sight of liberals wrapping themselves in the flag, citing the need for American auto companies to prosper in order to function as the bedrock of our economy or some such nonsense. But are cars built by Toyota or Honda here in the U.S. any less American? What exactly is an American car? And why does it matter anyhow? Seems to me such questions should be left to the desolate intellectual ground inhabited by Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan.

Continuing on:

According to 2007 figures compiled by the Center for Automotive Research, foreign automakers including Honda, Toyota and Nissan employed some 113,000 workers in the United States, about half of the 239,000 employed by Detroit's Big Three.

..."I don't think they should be bailed out at all," said paint shop worker Tony Mitchell, 38. Hired by Honda in July after being laid off from his job at an American faucet-maker, Mitchell said his job was "a dream come true." And he doesn't like the precedent set by a bailout of Honda's competitors.

"It says that if you get in another bind three years down the road someone is going to bail you out again," he said.

Larry and Tony have a more intelligent perspective on the auto bailout than many of our politicians.

Update: More here.