Deju Vu

Way back when there were these nasty rumors that the end of the American economy was near. These rumors and fears were based on speculation that auto makers from Japan were gearing up to import their products to America. UAW wadded up its panties like a feminist with a coathanger.

Of course... everyone's worst fears came to pass and before long cheap jap cars were available throughout America. As we can now plainly see... this was the end of the world.

Actually it wasn't. The Jap cars were cheap and got awesome gas-milage. People bought them because they filled a market gap. Gas was expensive. These little 4-bangers didn't use much of it.

Now, everyone thinks of Jap cars as high-quality products... but that wasn't the case 40 years ago. We all thought they were junk back then. They were cheap, and they looked cheap. Oddly, it was that cheapness that ended up saving the companies. Because they were cheap, buyers paid close attention to the service manuals. For the first time average americans started changing their oil more than every 50,000 miles.

The lead these little jap cars to last a long time... and gain a better reputation for quality.

The jap companies did better and better, but eventually learned that it was impossible to make great money without manufacturing in America... and the net result was finally known. We got more competition... cheaper better cars with better gas milage... and more American manufacturing jobs.

Yep... that sounds like the end of the world to me. Would that all disasters turned out so well.

So for the last 3 or 4 years or so we've heard nasty fear mongering about China importing cheap cars into the US.

No doubt this will also be the end of the American Economy.

Yeah... Ok.