Ray and Tom,
I enjoy listening to your show every Saturday morning. Thanks for the laughs and occasionally the good advice.
I have a bone to pick with you thought concerning last week’s show (November 14, 2009). A caller from Sacramento asked about hybrids (hence Prius = Dork question) and you suggested Honda and Toyota. I’m disappointed you did not suggest the Ford Fusion. What gives? The US-based auto manufacturers certainly need the support.
Respectfully,
Sean Quinn
Sean,
For future reference: There is a box near the top of the page where you typed your original post that allows you to choose which forum to place your post in. This probably would have been better osted in The Show than General Discussion.
And maybe they just consider Prius and Insight owners to be dorks, not Fusion owners. 
Sean, I Couldn’t Agree More. Not Only Do The U.S. - Based Companies Earn The Full Support Of My Entire Family, But I Find Their Cars To Be Second To None.
These car companies have been selling cars in earnest, in our country, for years. Some have divisions in the U.S., although their world headquarters are in foreign countries. All these manufacturers have parts suppliers and assembly plants here and employ U.S. workers, but take a look at where the companies’ world headquarters are located and where customers’ ultimate support is going.
General Motors: United States based auto maker, Detroit Michigan, United States, since 1908
Ford: United States based auto maker, Dearborn, Michigan, United States, since 1903
Chrysler: United States based auto maker, Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States, since 1925
Toyota: Japan based auto maker, Tokyo, Japan, post WWII
Honda: Japan based auto maker, Tokyo, Japan, post WWII
Volkswagen: German based auto maker, Wolfsburg, Germany, post WWII
CSA
America, What a country!
While I would love to see Detroit rise again, foreign competition succeed because it listened to its customers. And that forced Detroit to finally begin doing the same.
Unfortunately the only way US-based car companies are staying competitive is to heavily rely on foreign engineering, parts, and assembly. That’s happening in too many US-based industries. We have to solve that problem at a global-USA level (education, retraining, etc).
“Unfortunately the only way US-based car companies are staying competitive is to heavily rely on foreign engineering, parts, and assembly. That’s happening in too many US-based industries. We have to solve that problem at a global-USA level (education, retraining, etc).”
And the converse is true! Foreign manufacturer’s are successful because they rely on American engineering, parts, and assembly. It’s a world economy; let’s get used to it.
CSA, I also have a bone to pick and you are not alone in your error. America is either of two continents. US of A, What a country!
I wonder how this makes the Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, Chileans, Argentinians, Hondurans, and many others feel when they, being Americans just as much as US residents are seemingly not thought of as also being Americans.
That is a good point.
There is, in fact, no nation named “America”.
However, CSA shouldn’t feel too bad about the error.
After all, Sarah Palin thought that Africa was a nation, rather than a continent!
But then again, you and I speak American. The term is used to distinguish our language from English. Both are very similar, but there are many differences. Think of America as shorthand for United States of America, just as we might refer to Great Britain as Britain sometimes. We used to call the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as the Soviet Union, too. I don’t recall any quibbles with that.
This claim, which is actually erroneous, comes up on Mexico travel forums from time to time, when someone wants to feel really, really PC. There is exactly one nation in the world which is actually called America, not more than one. That is the United States of America. Look up the Constitution, the first paragraph which starts, WE THE PEOPLE, and note the last words of that paragraph. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Mexico’s full name is the United States of Mexico, and calls itself Mexico, just as the United States of America calls itself, correctly I might add, America.
Thus, it is correct for citizens of the USA to call themselves Americans, just as citizens of USM call themselves Mexicans, er, Mexicanos, sorry. I bet you have never heard many people call themselves UnitedStatesians, right? Though there is a word in Spanish which essentially means that, which is really strange coming from the United States of Mexico.
Geographers selected the name America for two continents, North and South America. No other nation has chosen to use the name America, in their political name, nor is that convention of geographers binding on anyone else other than geographers and students of geography.
I know people from almost every country you listed, also some you didn’t list, and if you call them Americans, they will, correctly I might add, be offended and wonder what your problem is.
People from Central America will admit their nation is in Central America, but I have never heard a Central American claim he is American.
Mexicans get very angry if you say Mexico is in Central America, and I include some highly educated friends.
My suggestion is, unless you are ashamed to be an American, er,don’t act like you are ashamed to be American. That is what you are, because that is the correct legal name of your nation, and there is no other nation with that word in it’s name.
PC can produce strange results.
By the way, for newbs who may not know it, I am living in the United States of Mexico and I have had this exact conversation with Mexicans in the past, because people who don’t know better keep bringing it up on different message boards.
They do use Americanos for Americans, but they use Norte Americanos for both the US and Canadians.
Sometimes they say gringos, but that is not common and is not considered polite, though we usually don’t mind ourselves. Sometimes people call me whitey (guero) though my arms are tanned darker than theirs for the most part. Men and women also affectionately call their spouse whitey.