"American" companies and Singer

Several of you have taken to the issue of outsourcing. Excellent -- I am glad some of the themes seem to have struck a chord, and I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts. I will try to bring in another piece or two, perhaps on Friday, that we might look at.

In terms of foreign and domestic production, I have been thinking about an issue that has not yet come up in our discussions, but may in the future when we talk about MNCs in week 4. The issue is, what is an "American company"? Does an MNC have a "home country"? Toyota and Honda have factories in the U.S., employ American workers, and have American shareholders owning a piece of the company. Similarly, Ford and GM have factories, employees, and shareholders in Brazil, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere. This makes it interesting to think about what is an "American" car -- or more generally, American product -- in the age of globalism. Should it be measured just by where the corporate headquarters is? The majority of the shareholders (i.e., where its profits go)? Where most of its employees are (i.e., where its wages go)?

Generally, is there any truly "American", "Japanese", or "German" car?

This seems to be one more area to which we can extend Singer's logic. Let's assume for the moment that Toyota and Honda are as intricately intertwined with the welfare of the world economy as GM. Is there a reason to favor one of these companies over the other?