Piano Lesson

Monday, March 30, 2009
Washington Times
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin

Piano Lesson

President Obama is doing everything in his power to save a dying U.S. auto industry, providing a combined $17.4 billion to General Motors and Chrysler since January, with another cash infusion on the way.

Perhaps it's time for Mr. Obama to sit down for a piano lesson.

As pointed out by Jeffrey Tucker, editor of the Free Market, the highest priced goods that people buy today besides houses are cars. Thus, the argument: How can we, powerful nation that we are, let our beloved car industry die?

Maybe, one might argue, the same way past U.S. presidents allowed our once-unmatched piano industry to wither when outplayed by other piano-producing nations. As surprising as it may sound, before the car - from 1870 to 1930 - the biggest-ticket item on every household budget, besides the house, was the piano.

“Everyone had to have one,” Mr. Tucker recalled. “Those who didn't have one aspired to have one. It was a prize, an essential part of life, and they sold by the millions and millions.”

To satisfy the demand, a “gigantic U.S. piano industry” blossomed, and by 1890, U.S. workers and their companies were feeding half the world market for pianos.

“It was a case of relentless and astounding growth,” wrote Mr. Tucker, citing such American giants as Steinway, Kimball, Chickering, Wurlitzer and Baldwin. “The American piano industry was the greatest in the world.”

But then came 1930 - “the last great year of the American piano. Sales fell and continued to fall when times were tough. The companies that were beloved by all Americans ... began to go belly-up one by one.”

In 1960, Japan was manufacturing half as many pianos as the United States. Yet by 1970, its production outstripped the United States; and by 1980, the Japanese were making twice as many pianos as Americans. Then the production shifted to Korea, whereas today, China is at the center of world piano production.

”Does anyone care that much?” Mr. Tucker asked in the Ludwig von Mises Institute publication. “Not too many. Have we been devastated as a nation and a people because of it? Not at all. It was just a matter of the economic facts.”

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