Toyota Prius vs Chevy Volt

A few days back a commenter of the more liberal and green persuasion mentioned that they owned a Toyota Prius.  It was appropriate since we were discussing global warming and what we can do to lessen our contribution to it.  Of course I had to seize the opportunity to point out that a true liberal supporter of American Workers, Unions, Government Taxes / Spending, etc should be driving a Chevy Volt.
G2A:Made in America: Really
G2A: Made in America: The Myth

I have written about the importance of buying from American firms that have most of their marketing, design, test, IT, accounting, corporate, executive and other functions in the USA.  Of course, liberals who buy American assembled product from a foreign based firm seem to be able to rationalize their actions.  They seem to believe that those decisions and actions are in some way aligned with the political beliefs they promote.  They seem to believe they are less greedy than those evil rich folks and businesses they villify for moving the jobs overseas.

Now I know I should also be frustrated with the fiscal conservatives that do not support our American companies and workers.  However it is hard to fault someone who is so open and honest about their capitalistic beliefs.  I mean they are typically anti-union, pro-competition, pay for quality / effectiveness / value / etc, each out for their own, etc, etc, etc. So it makes sense that they will buy what they consider the best value no matter the consequences.

However to see a self proclaimed liberal who preaches sharing with the poor, supporting the American worker, raising taxes, higher government spending, supporting public workers, etc driving their sporty little Hyundai, Toyota, Kia, Honda, Subaru, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc seems very ironic if not even hypocritical.  And not only do they often drive them, but they have become highly brand loyal and insist on only buying them. 

Note: I do own a couple foreign vehicles, however I typically only own buy them when that vehicle type is not offered by an American company. (ie sport touring motorcycle Yamaha FJR1300)

So back to the Prius and the Volt, the reality is that Toyota spent 1+ billion dollars developing the initial Prius.  "The total cost of development was an estimated $1 billion -- after all the anguish, about average for a new car."  And I am sure some of that work was done in the USA, however the vast majority was done in other countries. (primarily Japan)  And in this case every Prius has been built in Japan so far, so one can not even claim that they are supporting the less beneficial American based assembly jobs.

Whereas GM incurred similar large development costs and is building the car in the USA.  And even better, Obama and crew are big supporters of GM and Michigan built vehicles.  I mean Michigan and GM have long been very good to the UAW and American employees, and Obama and crew gave over most of the company to the Union and its employees.  Many ex-employees say that GM actually stands for Generous Motors...

To me it is pretty simple, people just aren't putting their money where their mouth is.  If you want to support American workers, generate more tax revenues, enable more government spending, etc, then buy the product from a company where most of your money goes to American workers / taxes.  Be they in development, production, support functions or the corner office, and remember that production is an ever shrinking part of the pie in our very high tech "Research and Development" world.

Now this product may be very slightly less reliable, may not be quite as fashionable, may cost you a little more, may have slightly lower mpg, etc.  But by God you are a Liberal who believes in redistributing wealth through the American Government and Unions, so start spending more of your wealth here.  And reduce how much you are spending to support the governments, workers and poor in Japan, Germany, South Korea, China, etc.  Stop spending selfishly like you believe the greedy rich do.

Thoughts?