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Leveraging Corporate America
Sometimes it seems that only the American people have a
patriotic concern for the nation, hoping and waiting for the day corporate
America will get on board. Others simply hope that one day U.S.-based
corporations will see themselves as American companies rather than global
companies that prefer not to swear allegiance to any one country. Alexis de
Tocqueville was quoted as saying “I have heard of patriotism in the United
States, and I have found true patriotism among the people, but never among the
leaders of the people.” Of course corporations aren’t leaders of the people, but
their actions certainly have a big impact on the U.S. economy and can lead us in
one direction or another.
One sign that there may be at least a minor corporate shift to proudly claiming
American roots by an American company is taking place in the alcoholic beverage
industry. Anheuser-Busch, based in St. Louis, Missouri, has devoted an entire
page on their website explaining why American owned matters. The timing couldn’t
be more appropriate. Miller was bought by South African Breweries (whose parent
company is in England) and more recently, Coors merged with Canadian-owned
Molson.
The term “merger,” however, can be deceiving. It is true that a merger may take
place, but it is also true that there must be a controlling corporate
headquarters in one particular country or another. The fantasy of “dual
headquarters” was exposed when Daimler-Benz “merged” with Chrysler in the late
1990s. The deal was passed off as a “merger of equals” with “dual headquarters”
in Detroit, Michigan and Stuttgart, Germany. But as soon as the ink was dry on
the deal, the German CEO led his fellow American counterparts in a rendition of
Don McLean’s “American Pie.” It wasn’t long after that that American executives
loyal to Chrysler realized Stuttgart was going to call the shots, and they
started to bail out along with a significant percentage of American owners and
investors.
The only thing American about DaimlerChrysler today is the factories that remain
in America, which number far fewer than those operated by General Motors or
Ford. Chrysler is now much more Apple Strudel than Apple Pie. Paychecks and pink
slips now come out of Stuttgart and not Detroit. Time will tell if the Molson
Coors deal goes in a similar direction, but the new company is based in Canada,
not the United States.
As the Anheuser-Busch website rightly points out, 51% of the profits go beyond
America’s borders when you buy a Molson Coors product, and 68% of the profits go
beyond America’s borders when you buy a SAB Miller product. Since 95% of
Anheuser-Busch is owned by Americans, 95% of the profits will remain in America
when you buy an Anheuser-Busch product.
To be fair, Miller Lite, Coors, Icehouse and Miller Genuine Draft are all brewed
and bottled in the USA, but so aren’t Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch and Michelob.
The question here is this: Are we to support an American-brewed beer from an
American company or an American-brewed beer from a foreign company? Since the
profits either stay in or are repatriated to America when we support American
companies, it is better for our country’s financial health and future prosperity
to patronize companies based here.
But does Anheuser-Busch’s concern about profits exiting America really go any
further than how it affects their bottom line? Maybe time will tell, but
American companies don’t always need to give a hoot about American workers for
our country to reap the benefits from supporting them.
Instead of waiting around for American companies to proudly announce their
allegiance to America’s national interest in particular, a better strategy is to
support them because they are American owned before making any corporate
responsibility demands. We as consumers have to be on record supporting American
companies before we can expect to have any leverage to influence corporate
America. Otherwise, why would corporate America listen? Based upon what? A
future guarantee that American consumers will begin to support them after they
raise their cost of production by building more high-cost American factories and
employing more high-wage American workers? If you’ve ever been involved in a
political campaign and belonged to a particular interest group that supported
one party in particular, you know that the opposing party’s candidate isn’t
going to pay much attention to you until you show your support for him or her
first. Claiming you’ll support any political candidate after they start to vote
your way simply won’t cut it. That’s just how it works.
In my opinion, Anheuser-Busch has taken a significant leap forward in devoting
an entire page to convince us that American owned – not just American made -
matters. The page isn’t hard to find either. Just go to www.AnheuserBusch.com
and you’ll see a banner on the home page that reads “American owned. Born Here.
Brewed Here.”
The simple fact that this banner and its message isn’t buried somewhere, hard to
find or represented by a small hyperlink could mean that Anheuser-Busch really
believes ownership, patriotism and corporate responsibility really matter. Let’s
support them and their American workers and keep them number one in the
industry. The last thing we need is to allow another industry to slip into
foreign hands when patriotic consumers could have stopped it from happening by
voting the right way with their dollars.
And if you get bored filling your glass with Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch or
Michelob and have the urge to try an import, try a Corona. Corona is imported
from Mexico, but the brand is 51% owned by Anheuser-Busch. Since American
investors hold a majority of the shares, Corona’s future production will be
decided by Americans, not Mexicans. And although your beer may be imported, at
least all your dollars won’t be exported, as they would be if you bought
Heineken or Beck’s.
Roger Simmermaker, Author
How Americans Can Buy American
www.howtobuyamerican.com
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