2 ms·

"The decision to buy an American car outside the US is completely irrational and emotional" To be fair, its also 'irrational and emotional' for most people in

"The decision to buy an American car outside the US is completely irrational and emotional" To be fair, its also 'irrational and emotional' for most people in the US also. Patriotism isn't really 'rational'[1], and while keeping jobs in America is rational, unless you work in the car industry, the benefits of buying the right car outweigh the job/tax loss. This would apply to any country and any car industry BTW, I'm not having a dig at the US. [1] theres probably many books on this subject, and there are a great many rational elements to patriotism. Buying a car, just because it says 'made in X', I would contend isn't one of them.

riffraff 8y ago
there are probably the points of availability (dealerships and the likes), support ("you can always find a spare for a local made car, but you may have to wait a month to source one from Korea"), and market distortion due to trade tariffs that make buying American cars in the US more rational than abroad. I don't know if those are real issues, but I heard them mentioned.
rjf72 8y ago
I don't think it has anything to do with patriotism in and of itself as this applies to most of everything. This $100 phone will cover literally 100% of my use cases in a 100% satisfactory fashion. This $200 (let alone $1000) phone will do the same. Let me think, I'll get the $1000 one! Companies have convinced people, particularly in the US, that products are reflections of themselves. In doing so they've convinced people to engage in completely irrational consumer behavior on a very wide scale. $1000 phones for one group of people is the same as $300 sneakers for another group -- wasting money to try to convey an image. That $1000 phone has parts worth a few hundred bucks, the sneakers are made for about $15. It's only with extreme irrationality that these would ever be viable business models. This is one of the big reasons I go out of my way to block any and all advertising. People don't think they're susceptible to advertising, yet look at society and people have become completely and absolutely irrational in their purchasing. I think it's clearly marketing and advertising driving this - patriotism is just one small subset of domains that is effectively targeted.

riffraff 8y ago

there are probably the points of availability (dealerships and the likes), support ("you can always find a spare for a local made car, but you may have to wait a month to source one from Korea"), and market distortion due to trade tariffs that make buying American cars in the US more rational than abroad. I don't know if those are real issues, but I heard them mentioned.

rjf72 8y ago

I don't think it has anything to do with patriotism in and of itself as this applies to most of everything. This $100 phone will cover literally 100% of my use cases in a 100% satisfactory fashion. This $200 (let alone $1000) phone will do the same. Let me think, I'll get the $1000 one! Companies have convinced people, particularly in the US, that products are reflections of themselves. In doing so they've convinced people to engage in completely irrational consumer behavior on a very wide scale. $1000 phones for one group of people is the same as $300 sneakers for another group -- wasting money to try to convey an image. That $1000 phone has parts worth a few hundred bucks, the sneakers are made for about $15. It's only with extreme irrationality that these would ever be viable business models. This is one of the big reasons I go out of my way to block any and all advertising. People don't think they're susceptible to advertising, yet look at society and people have become completely and absolutely irrational in their purchasing. I think it's clearly marketing and advertising driving this - patriotism is just one small subset of domains that is effectively targeted.