What can you do for your country? Buy American!
By Bob English Cross posted at Eatontown-TintonFallsPatch.com
Over 50 years ago, President Kennedy recited one of the many great lines in his historic inaugural address when he said “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
In these troubled times, there is something that all of us can do for our country. That is to “Buy American-Made In the USA.” This year, holiday shoppers in the United States will spend over $10 billion when shopping for gifts. This at a time when there are millions of people without jobs or health insurance through no fault of their own.
There are many manufacturers of American-made products, struggling to survive, whose future depends on strong sales during the next four weeks. For many workers, those sales determine whether they are still working in January or whether they join the ranks of the unemployed.
While buying American isn’t always easy, if you make a conscious effort to look at labels showing the country of origin on products before you purchase, it’s not as hard as you might think. If you are in a store looking for a partucular item, you could ask to see “American Made” products. You can also use the Internet to research companies that offer American-made products, such as clothing and toys. Just do a search for “American Made ______” (item you wish to purchase). In many cases you can purchase American made products right off the Internet.
Buying American can be everyone’s holiday gift to our country and to our fellow citizens. The job you save might be a neighbor’s, a relative’s or your own.
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But why stop here?
BUY NEW JERSEY so you help our struggling state’s economy!
On the other hand… spending more money on SOME American-manufactured products, will mean less purchasing power for buying OTHER stuff, including American-based services.
Won’t those manufacturing jobs saved by buying American merchandise be offset by jobs lost in other sectors where you buy less? Including restaurant jobs, consulting services, health and beauty jobs?
The thing is, if you pay $200 extra to buy American-made toys, you’ll probably skip 7 trips to a local restaurant or 8 trips to your hair-dresser, or maybe you’ll postpone a home improvement project. In other words, you save a few jobs in Ohio, but lose a few jobs in New Jersey. Overall, it’s the same net job gain, but consumers get less product and less value for their money.
Sorry but this shows a basic lack of economic literacy. It don’t matter where it its made. You buy it and jobs are created either way. Good jobs just different ones.
For anyone interested, the link below is to another article in the Eatontown-TF Patch that lists several holiday gift ideas for products made right here in Monmouth County.
http://eatontown.patch.com/articles/made-in-monmouth-your-hyperlocal-holiday-gift-guide
But if you go to a store, and choose the more expensive American-made products, then you buy less items. Less sales means the store can downsize and lay off some of its American employees.
You guys are a rough crowd today. Couple of thoughts:
–Not every foreign made product is of higher quality and/or lower priced than American made goods.
–There are many foreign made products that are of much lower quality than those that are American made.
–Both large general merchandise retailers and home centers have hundreds if not thousands of products under brand names (or a store brand) that are exclusively made for them. In many cases, the quality would meet the level of being barely acceptable but is definitely not high quality.
–Are you willing to pay any kind of premium $1, $2, 5% ect……for an American made product that is of equal quality to one that is foreign made?
–Many large retailers/home centers have multiple offerings in some product categories including American made products so you don’t have to worry about those stores laying off their hourly workers that are lucky if they are making 22k/year in the event more of their customers ask for/buy American made products.
–Note there is a big difference as to how money spent on American made goods is than recycled through the American economy (paychecks for American factory workers who than in turn spend the money in the US at other buisnesses, a factory/plant in the United States which buys all kinds of other products/services from American businesses) versus a large retailer/home center paying a foreign manufacturer for goods and never seeing the $$$ in this country again (unless of course they loan it back to us.)
Not so fast, Bob English.
My whole life I was a “buy American” preacher. Never owned a foreign car and and would shop for days to find an American made sneaker (New Balance and some Converse turned out to be the choices).
A couple of incidents gave me pause.
Awhile back one of the major auto makers (Ford or GM) was retooling a factory and went with a Japanese tool maker instead of an American company because they were cheaper.
I was ticked, but I got over that and maintained my self-labeled patriotic status by buying American.
Then the bailouts came. I suffered through years of buying American cars that were more expensive and less reliable. Instead of strengthening the company which I thought my financial sacrifice in their favor was doing, I was only strengthening the Union who operates at the expense of the company and the workers.
When I didn’t want to spend more of my money bailing out the car manufactuer, the Union was strong enough to use my own elected officials to take my money against my will.
If the car manufacturers are going to fail the game of capitalism against foreign companies because of unions, then let them fail. Don’t steal my money with anti-capitalist legislation that both insures managements failures and inhibits those who can do it better from getting in the game.
The auto and bank bailouts were a bow to early 20th century European Corporatism (economic facism) that turned the worker into a surf of the state/corporate hybrid which developed.
Once “buy American” turned into a front for “support the union and the politicians t” it seems a great deal less patriotic than it used to be.
I buy the best product at the best value for my dollar. Only an idiot would buy an inferior and more costly product simply because of where it was made. If American companies & American workers can’t compete, they need to get out of the arena that is the free market.
Just to be clear, I am not telling anyone to purchase an inferior product.
In terms of “competing” note that in many countries workers are paid very low wages and work under conditions that would not be acceptable in most developed nations. How does a manufacture of a product in the US compete with one overseas that could be paying its workers as little as $150 per month? Fortunately in the United States, our workers do not live in huts.
UNFORTUNATELY, we live in a country where I have to pay an extra $1,600 per vehicle to fund the pensions and health costs for unionized auto workers.
If I may paraphrase Dan Jacobson, fund your own damn pension.