New Years Resolution...If you HAVE to buy, buy American Made as much as possible...

[MRAHoffman]

Ok, on my soapbox I go... I'm currently reading a book by Kevin Phillips (he was in the Nixon Administration) called "Bad Money". It talks about how we got in our current Recession mess. One of the main points is how we went from being a nation that BUILT things to a FINANCE nation. I agree with some aspects of "free trade (when it works), but current evidence says it doesn't. In my opinion, if companies/people want to prosper, they need to build manufacturing companies in the countries they plan on selling in (GM sells cars in China, build factories there so the employees can also buy the cars (the Henry Ford model)...sure due the pollution laws, things may be more expensive to make in the US vs China, but you also, have distribution, taxes, wages, etc to consider thereby pricing products appropriate to these factors. In order for us to get out of this recession we need to make more products, there needs to be 3 tiers of wealth (upper, middle, poverty) NOT only 2 and given the current crisis, there are more in poverty than upper as even the wealthy lost big $ in the market. I'm pledging for New Years that IF I absolutely need something, I will pay a little more and buy local, American Made products (whenever I am able to)...anyone else...even a LITTLE bit would help...please see attached article:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28378948/.

Take care and God bless.

[Momto2Boyz]

YEAH! Hop up on that soap box girl!

I agree with you whole heartedly. DH and I do sometimes buy things that aren't American made, but if we can, we always try to. Keep the jobs at home when we can, but we've noticed more and more that sometimes it isn't possible!

Plus, (allow me a jump up on the soapbox) when you buy American made, you are not inadvertantly buying sweatshop products as well. Working conditions in foreign countries, such as China and Hong Kong are appalling for women and children, so we tend to stay away from things made in those countries!

We also shop locally owned companies before shopping box stores. We do not shop at Wal-mart period, Target only occassionally, get our groceries from a locally owned grocery store (I do supplement with Aldi's, but its so darn cheap).

My thought is that if we keep the money local, it'll be spent locally. It won't totally boost the economy, but I'd rather see a shop owner here on Main Street do well than see Wal-mart stock rise and people make money on Wall street!

[Sassyclass]

Move over girls, I'm climbing on too. I work for a manufacturing plant and know just how buying non-USA made products hurts our economy. I'm willing to pay a little more for something if I know it keeps Americans working.Thanks for a great post.

Cat

[homesteadmamma]

We buy locally first (handmade) if possible. From there we go to Canada made (which is almost impossible) and then US made (again which is tough to find).

We do our best to do this route has much has possible.

[xtena]

I'm with you. I try to buy made in USA or Canada as much as possible but the trouble is so many things ONLY seem to be made in China (or other developing nations) these days. It is frustrating and infuriating that so little is made here these days, but it's a Catch-22. Workers desire (and I do believe they are entitled to) a 40 hour or shorter work week, 'living' wages and medical benefits. Yet we want cheap goods. How else to keep the prices down but to manufacture in places like China that don't pay living wages, overtime pay or benefits? But then, as more and more jobs disappear (first it was manufacturing, then customer support, now even IT jobs etc. are being outsourced these days) we need ever-cheaper goods as more good-paying jobs disappear without new opportunities opening up.

[warramra]

Ted Koppel did an interesting 3-night show on China and consumerism back in August, just before the Olympics. I found it really interesting in that the emerging middle class in China does not want China-made products, they think they are 'crap' too. Chinese shop for western-made products as much as possible. The most popular car in China is the Buick. The middle-class place to grocery shop is Walmart, with many products being "American", such as those chicken parts we don't eat and they do (the packages came from North Carolina)... . One of their concerns is whether or not food products made in China are safe. Yet, western citizens are supposed to have no concerns about this??

I try to shop locally, starting with farmer's markets. Look for the made in NC labels in the grocery stores, and what not. If I have to buy clothing I always try the thrift shops first. I may get something from overseas, but I didn't make the original purchase and the money stays local.

If the economy does get much worse, I think local cottage industries will actually become more available and the better buy in the long run.

[Greebo]

The current fiscal mess is not the result of a failure of free trade, because we do not have free trade in the USA, and we haven't for over 100 years.

We have some of the least free trade when it comes to fiscal policy - banking and lending and investing.

What we have when it comes to the economic markets in the USA is Economic Fascism - where one entity, the FED, backed by Government, makes all the monetary rules, and can change them to suit their own ends, and the free market cannot compete.

So please, don't blame this mess on "Free market" - because that's a red-herring. The politicians who blame this on free market policies that didn't work are making straw men arguments. To even be Free market, there must be NO policies in the first place about the market.

[prftstrngr]

I live in Canada and I work for a company that still manufactures pantyhose in Canada and is family owned. They do MOST of their own work and only go offshore to China or other countries when need be. We had a sales meeting last year and one of the buyers from the plant came to talk to us. He explained about buying from China as an example. They dont make alot of their own socks so they travel personally to the manufacturing plants around the world to find what they are looking for. They are also part of some trade agreement than bans places that use child labour and other below standard procedures. The one thing I found hard was when he talked about child labour. Because the cultures are so different he said it was very hard to distinguish at times between what was right and what was not. In China as an example...if you are 12 and not working...reality is you probably are not eating either. So as a company they take all of that into consideration. So...if you are looking for Canadian made products buy Secret pantyhose! Most are still manufactured in canada and Im proud to work for a company that is still family owed with no public trading and good morals when they do have to buy offshore! I always try to buy from Canada or the US..... but reality is it gets harder all the time.