Actually, no? It's private industry - if we start paying them to do things, then it's socialized industry that all the isles are whining about (see UK rail for example). Oh, see US rail - Amtrak, for example. USia is based on the myth that selfish profit motive is the solution to all society's ills.

The only reason I can see to do this is that it is a difficult industry to start. A factory is huge and expensive, car designs are very expensive, and the liability on cars can be huge so you need whole teams of engineers and (ugh) lawyers. So if we lose this industry, we may not get it back - or just have it as we do now, foreign companies with factories in this country.