Is there a backlash coming?

[Steve]

If "Toyota could surpass General Motors Corp. as the world’s No. 1 automaker next year" do you think there will be a backlash against Toyota products?

Toyota makes friends, readies for backlash (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17422108/) - From a high school auditorium near the birthplace of Elvis, Toyota was greeted like a hometown hero this week when it announced its eighth vehicle assembly plant in North America.

Students cheered as the automaker showed off a Highlander sport utility vehicle that will be built starting in 2010 at the $1.3 billion plant near Tupelo, Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour called Toyota Motor Corp. the “world’s premiere auto manufacturer,” and Sen. Trent Lott, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, promised “when you are in our constituency, we are warriors on your behalf.”

Toyota’s choice of Mississippi for a new plant should give it more clout on Capitol Hill. With Michigan-based automakers facing hardships, a few more members of Congress on its side helps as Toyota takes on some lawmakers who openly question whether what’s good for Toyota and other Japanese automakers is good for America.

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/2007/February/070228/070302_toyota_hmed_12p.hmedium.jpg

[S.P.Martin Lawn Care]

The consumer will be the final arbitrator. Good products will move, bad ones will languish.

I think the reason they were cheering in Mississippi is the well paying jobs Toyota will provide. Everyone that will be working in the plant has to get paid, as does the suppliers of parts made here, so I anticipate that better than 90% of the revenues generated will be staying right here in the USA. Thats $9 out of every $10. And how about the dealers? Are they not staffed with our friends and neighbors? Even more money that stays within our borders. How can that be bad?

[Steve]

It sounds good.

The thing I was wondering is why haven't more auto plants been built in the southern states?