Consumers worldwide are in the driver's seat

Saturday, March 8, 2008
Commentary
Consumers worldwide are in the driver's seat
Warren Brown / The Washington Post

NEW YORK -- I must write this quickly, as a team of great doctors and nurses at New York-Presbyterian Hospital is waiting to rush me into kidney dialysis. It's no biggie -- just a continuation of life, another way of keeping me healthy to have my say.

What I want to say this week is something that should be obvious to all of us. But apparently it isn't, because too many of us keep falling for the same old guff.

The obvious truth: The trouble with politics is that it oversimplifies reality, especially during elections. The unhappy result of that publicly practiced intellectual deficiency is an endlessly debilitating con game -- one that leaves us as a nation absent sensible, meaningful economic and energy policies and with an overabundance of political and regulatory officials eager to implement the latest go-nowhere fad masquerading as policy.

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It is a practice engaged in by Republicans and Democrats, putative liberals and conservatives. It matters not that the politician's surname is Clinton, Huckabee, Obama or McCain. On important issues, economic and energy issues that ultimately demand some realistic form of sacrifice, participation, cooperation and understanding from the American public, they punt. They obfuscate and pander.

Consider the matter of international trade, which involves an exchange of international competencies and talents as well as of goods, services and money.

If we take seriously any of the current rhetoric from politicians left and right, we'll believe that international trade is a bad thing, an evil, one-world scheme destined to rob America of jobs and greatness. That is a foolish notion but one often mouthed by politicians looking for votes.

I am sitting in a hospital that is the moral equivalent of a medical United Nations. The nurses and doctors are from all over the world. Many are naturalized American citizens. Others hold dual citizenships. Others are here on working visas. From what I can tell, they are all excellent at what they do, which is keeping people such as me alive and productive.

Were I a true believer in the "America uber alles" economic mutterings so routinely expressed by our politicians, I would have a very hard time with this hospital. I mean, it would get truly silly: Should I demand a black American doctor who is a true child of genuine American slavery? Or should I accept one that the media call "African American," which happens to be a genetic truism, because he is a child of African and white American parentage?

Should I reject the services of a brilliant and caring nephrologist because she's from Romania, or of an equally brilliant and caring cardiologist from England? Should I prefer Cecilia from the Philippines as my intensive-care nurse over Cecilie from Norway, who holds dual Norwegian and American citizenship? Should I question their national loyalties, worry that they are "taking jobs" from native-born American citizens? It all gets a bit stupid.

I am a health-care consumer. What I care about is remaining as healthy as possible. If the people here or at my equally multinational "home" hospital in Georgetown can help me do that, that is all I care about.

What has any of this got to do with the seeming decline of automotive jobs in the United States? The short answer is: "everything."

The loss of U.S. market share and jobs by General Motors, Ford and what is now called Chrysler hides another significant fact: GM and Ford, for example, are increasing their shares of market in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. Chrysler is trying to position itself to ultimately go after many of the same markets. The companies that succeed in those international endeavors will be the companies that will be around in the future, regardless of their national origins.

None of this, as too many of our political, regulatory and labor leaders naively would have us believe, amounts to a simple win-loss situation with America coming out on the losing end. The truth: It is a consumer-driven reality, with consumers worldwide sitting behind the wheel, all searching for top quality at affordable prices, even if that means traumatic developments in their respective home economies.

Look at what is happening in the global automotive components industry. Auto manufacturers all over Western Europe are considering switching their supply bases to companies in the United States. It's a simple strategy, one that could preserve a number of U.S. auto industry supply jobs: It is cheaper and, thus, more profitable to manufacture supplies in less-expensive dollars than it is to do the same thing in substantially more costly euros.

Western European suppliers and their unions might not like that. But consumers benefiting from those supply-sourcing switches -- yielding quality at reasonable prices -- will buy the results every time. It is why America's Ford Focus compact is selling so wonderfully well all over Russia. It is why the Japanese, nonunion Toyota Camry remains the best-selling family car in America. Both cases are clear examples of why international trade should and will continue to grow, despite the simple-minded, self-seeking pronouncements of America's politicians.

If our leaders really want to help us, if they are truly dedicated to helping America move forward in the world, they should start being honest. They should start by emphasizing that America is a member of the world and that its membership has certain inescapable trade-offs and benefits, certain necessary and sometimes unhappy national economic consequences.

They should then acknowledge that none of the consequences of responsible world membership can be as dire as the results of our continued childish insistence on having things our way in economic, energy and environmental matters. Such tough talk won't win many elections. But it might save us from the madness of a nationalistic messiah desperately brought in to rescue us from the nastier consequences of our selfishness and closed-mindedness. What is that saying? To paraphrase, "People go mad in herds but come to their senses one by one," if my memory serves me correctly.

It's time for our leaders to start bringing us to our senses. It's time for somebody to call upon the American people to start facing the global realities of all of these issues and to make whatever sacrifices are needed to restore America as a trusted, respected world-stage performer -- one that is considerably more loved than it is feared.

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