Iacocca on the Influence of Foreign Lobbies in Washington

This is the same Iacocca whose commercials recently bragged that his Colt cars were built in Japan by Mitsubishi for Dodge. This is the same CEO who continues to use huge quantities of Japanese engines and products in his “American” cars. Now, Iacocca is snarling and yipping about lobbyists who are doing the job for which they’re paid, a large part of that pay coming indirectly from Chrysler.

Years ago, when it became apparent that Chrysler management had ineptly handled the company, Iacocca lobbied long, loud and hard for government-guaranteed loans and wage concessions from the UAW. He got all of that, and immediately turned to Japanese companies to provide him with the products needed to make his company competitive in the small-car market. When any company, large or small, moves American jobs overseas for cheap labor, it claims to be doing so for the “good of the American consumer,” the same kind of self-serving pronouncements Iacocca facetiously quotes in Japanese efforts to reduce tariffs. I have never seen any evidence of those labor savings being passed on to the American consumer. Rather, they tend to be paid as dividends to stockholders, and larger salaries to corporate executives.

There is a serious trade problem in America, but the solution isn’t posturing on the part of executives who sell out their workers. The solution isn’t the heavy hand of government coming down on Japanese products. The solution, pure and simple, is the conscience of the American people, responding with their checkbooks. I avoid buying Japanese products as much as I can.

DONALD J. HUNT

Simi