After having posted a third quarter profit of almost $1 billion, and with over $13 billion in revenue from the North American market alone, Ford has proven how businesses, not bureaucrats, are best suited to providing products that people actually want.  Moody’s immediately upgraded Ford’s credit ratings based on this recent news.

Yet perhaps the most important lesson is to observe how Ford’s two biggest “American” competitors, Chrysler and General Motors, who have been bailed out by Washington to the tune of $80 billion in tax-payer support, continue to struggle.  As if the auto-subsidies weren’t bad enough, Chrysler and GM’s favouritism has obstructed the market for automobiles and, worst of all, infuriated trade partners.

Without government support and protection from competition, Ford and all the other “foreign” automobile manufactures – all of whom pay American taxes, hire American workers, and make cars people actually want to buy – have concentrated on innovation and efficiency. While Chrysler and GM’s every step is micro-managed in Washington, Ford’s focus on cost-cutting over the last nine months have helped save $4.6 billion and have cost some jobs, but those cost-shavings help the company ensure its long-term profitability, which ensures more jobs will be created and more cars are built that people actually want to buy.