Should Ford Motor Be Given a $350 Million Tax Credit?

[erpowers]

I am not a fan of giving companies tax credits and I know that since the government is already engaged in this bailout the government is already on the hook for a great deal of money. However, Ford Motor has a Diesel vehicle that gets 65 miles per gallon (MPG), but one of the reasons Ford Motor will not sell the car here is the cost of importing the vehicle to America. They somewhat could still import the car to America in that after a tax credit for buying the car a consumer would only have to pay $400 more for the car than a Prius. However, Ford does not think it can compete with the Prius due to the cost of importing their car to America. Ford could build a new factory in Mexico, but Ford is reporting it would cost about $350 million to build a factory for producing diesel engines. In addition, the company would have to sell about 500,000+ cars per year to make it worth their while to produce the car in the Americas. If it can be proven that Ford would be able to sell 500,000 of the cars per year should the government give Ford Motor a tax credit of $350 million to build a diesel producing plant in Mexico or the United States? Once again I am generally against giving tax credits to companies, but if this would get more people to buy better cars maybe it should be done. So what do others think?

http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/105735/The-65-mpg-Ford-the-U.S.-Can't-Have

[FreeSpeaker]

1. Only if they build EVs.

Diesel is still OIL! Chevy Volt is going to really change things.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. biodiesel is not petro, and it's here now.

Will also get you a bit further on a 15-gallon tank than the 40 miles that Volt will take you.

[FreeSpeaker]

8. I am not opposed to biodeisel

especially where it can be implemented in a renewable way. I think turning food in to fuel has had some problems. The main issue with bio is it requires energy to be invested to harvest the fuel. So I see capturing naturally occurring energy such as wind, solar hydro and tidal to be having an advantage in the first place. But there are forms of bio fuel that are recycled and that's a great thing.

[napi21]

2. What's the matter with Ford converting one of their "US Factories"

to build these cars HERE? They wouldn't have to worry about import taxes! Yes I know it's expensive to do a conversion, but I can't believe it would be MORE expensive than building a new one, and it would be re-establishing our mfg. base!

[flvegan]

4. Or offer a similar Focus

No reason we can't have a stateside Focus ECOnetic, which I believe is much closer in size to the Prius.

[erpowers]

13. Thought About That

I thought about that as I was writing my piece. At the end of the piece I did mention giving money to build a factory either here in the United States or in Mexico. I think you are right about converting one of their U.S. factories to build diesel engines. It would be nice if they would do something in Detroit.

[shraby]

3. No way unless they keep all the jobs here in the

United States. Why bail out a foreign company which is what most companies are any more.

[wtmusic]

5. Ford wants money...to import their vehicle...to America?

:rofl:

Ford is ten years behind the curve, and Ford can go to hell.

[AndyTiedye]

6. I Thought We Had Rather a Lot of Idle Car Manufacturing Capacity Here

:wtf:
Why give them a huge tax credit to create jobs in Mexico?

[FreeSpeaker]

10. I have heard that other countries protect their citizens livelyhoods

I don't know why we don't.

Well actually I do, it's because our system is driven by the concept of money as influence on legislation. So moneyed interests buy laws that give them more money in the form of shipping our jobs off, so our laborers have to compete with countries with human rights abuses and poverty.

[ensho]

9. No, period.

nt

[Romulox]

11. LOL at all the "Free Market Gurus" huddled together in this thread...

pretending a $1,000,000,000,000 bailout of your heroes on Wall Street doesn't invalidate your whole world view. :silly:

[erpowers]

14. Never a Free Market Guru

I do not know if you are talking about me, but if you are I was never a free market guru. I supported putting regulations on corporations. In addition, I supported fair trade. I thought trade deals should only be signed if their would be worker protections that put forward minimum wages or fair wages. In addition, I supported not giving contracts to companies that setup dummy corporations just so they could lower their taxes. In addition, I did not support shiping American jobs overseas.

As I said in my original post I only support giving money to Ford Motor now because it could help get people driving better cars. I am against giving subsidies to companies making a profit.

[blues90]

12. hell no!!!!!!!!!!

If ford can't find a way to build this car In the USA and put american workers back to work then screw ford.
all three of the big three had decades to develope fuel efficient cars yet they instead chose to build gas hog SUV's and cheap small cars.

They don't give a damn about all the american auto workers who made them who they are now and now they want help. If it is possible to build these new cars over seas it is possible to build then here. No excuse is acceptable now.