Boycott France? Maybe

I was just listening to Bill O’Reilly talking about a poll on his website which is showing over 90% of Americans (that read his site) are supporting the idea of a boycott against France. O’Reilly admits that the boycott would be designed to punish the French for selling us out and would not be an attempt to get them to change their position in the UN Security Council. Among the various products he recommends boycotting are bottled water, alcoholic beverages, cheeses, and aircraft. He does not, however, support boycotting French owned hotels. The idea behind his boycott is great, but I don’t think it will work.

O’Reilly makes some good suggestions for products to use instead of French products. He recommends Polish water in place of Evian (but why not Zephyrhills – from Florida?). He suggests Californian or Australian wines. He recommends any cheese but French cheese. These are all simple choices. There isn’t anything complex about this kind of a boycott. If he were to stop here, I’d say this boycott had a chance to work.

But he takes it a step further. Among the truly multinational products that he proposes to boycott he includes the Airbus product line.

There are only two major aircraft manufacturers in the world: Boeing and Airbus. Boeing is based out of Washington state; Airbus is a multinational consortium primarily funded by companies in four nations: France, Germany, Italy, and the UK (yep, the same one that has given us Tony Blair). The Italian portion of Airbus is not anywhere near the same in scope as the other three nations’ commitments. British Aerospace now owns the UK portion and is the only truly privately held chunk of Airbus. The French and German pieces, though, are run as arms of the state aerospace industry (Airbus frequently enjoys protection as a sovereign entity of the French government, although they are getting away from that somewhat). They are in fact and in essence, pure socialism.

All of this provides ample backing for a boycott of Airbus. It is essentially part of the French government (German, too). It’s socialist underpinnings run completely contrary to our free market principles. And Jacques “Iraq” Chirac has pushed just a little too hard. So why won’t a boycott of Airbus work?

Simple. The American people don’t care enough to try to decipher an airline’s timetable to discover what kind of airplane they’re going to be flying on. And even if they could get through to secret code structure, most of the time, they wouldn’t be willing to fly out of their way or to possibly fly another airline to avoid an Airbus. Education and convenience will be the downfall of this boycott.

There is an ironic component to this and a shameful component also.

If we look at the Big Six airlines: United, American, Delta, Continental, Northwest, and USAir, three fly mixed Boeing/Airbus fleets (United, American and USAir), the other three fly just Boeing fleets (McDonnell Douglas is part of Boeing now). Two of the three mixed fleet operators are in bankruptcy, with American looking like it will join them very soon. It’s kind of ironic that we’re looking to punish Airbus, when the Airbus products punish the airlines balance sheets. A boycott of Airbus aircraft by Americans could very well lead to the Chapter 7 liquidations of both United and USAir, the two largest Airbus operators in the US.

A boycott of Airbus airplanes would lead to the loss of tens of thousands of airline jobs. And the shame of this situation is that a liquidation by USAir or United would put a serious hurt on Airbus. But they would not be able to retaliate in kind. Government interference in Lufthansa and Air France has led to those two airlines having already switched most of their fleets over to Airbus. How would they retaliate in kind? Cancel non-existent orders for Boeing aircraft?

I do find it odd though that O’Reilly supports boycotting Airbus, but not French owned hotels that are operating here because the hotels employ a large number of Americans. He is very concerned about hotel workers losing their jobs, but doesn’t seem to have thought through the ramifications of a successful Airbus boycott.

The French are weasels. I full agree that a boycott of French consumer products by ordinary Americans will deliver a wake-up call to Jacques “Iraq.” No more brie for me (as if I ever ate it anyway). The cognac I bought in Paris two years ago will get to age some more. And I couldn’t afford Evian even with my previous job! Let’s keep the boycott simple. Let’s make it work – without putting Americans out of work.