However, the angry reactions from American
labor unions, their patrons in Congress, and
rabble-rousing television and radio personalities
to GM’s proposal to reduce costs by shifting
more production to Mexico and China suggest
that the above definition of an American car is
not universally embraced.3 For those who
objected to GM’s plans, it is not the company’s
bottom line that matters, but rather the company’s
capacity to create U.S. jobs and stimulate
U.S. economic activity. That GM might need to
have a viable plan to become profitable so as to
create and support U.S. jobs and stimulate U.S.
economic activity somehow doesn’t factor into
the equation for these detractors. Instead, in
zero-sum fashion, they see investment in foreign
operations as antithetical to domestic job creation
and economic growth.4
Perhaps, then, they would find Slaughter’s
alternative definition of an American car more
acceptable: