Today's Wall Street Journal contains an informative editorial on the "other" auto industry -- the one not at the verge of going bankrupt in Detroit -- and makes the case that it would be "deeply unfair for government now to ask taxpayers" to suffer the consequences of poor management decisions and union contracts:
The men from Detroit will jet into Washington tomorrow -- presumably going commercial this time -- to make another pitch for a taxpayer rescue. Meanwhile, in the other American auto industry you rarely read about, car makers are gaining market share and adjusting amid the sales slump, without seeking a cent from the government.
These are the 12 "foreign," or so-called transplant, producers making cars across America's South and Midwest. Toyota, BMW, Kia and others now make 54% of the cars Americans buy. The internationals also employ some 113,000 Americans, compared with 239,000 at U.S.-owned carmakers, and several times that number indirectly. Click here to read more.
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