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Ah, but it isn't as simple as that--it IS a complicated issue. What happens to a publicly-traded corporation's net profits? Does it go to the government of the country where it's located, or to its stockholders? And what's the nationality of the majority of its stockholders? If that corporation is publicly held, and is listed on the NYSE, the Amex, or NASDAC, chances are the majority are Americans. If you have a pension, a 401(k), or a 403(b) that's a mutual fund, chances are you don't even know what companies you're investing in. Your entire retirement nest egg might be tied up in multinational firms headquartered in countries that don't support the US.
We all want to stick it to those countries, especially those that stabbed us in the back like France and Germany. But we don't want American workers (those employed here by those companies, or those in the import/export trade) and American investors to suffer along with them. Changing jobs often isn't an option, and when they took those jobs they never realized that it would become controversial some day. You're asking a lot if you're asking Americans who work for Perrier, VMC, Airbus, Air France, Lufthansa, Chrysler and many other French or German companies to quit and find other work in this economy, or for American investors to divest themselves of stocks from those companies in a down market.
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