Buy American?

[grannysoo]

Well, if you want to buy a new winter coat and you have the following choices:

1. Buy American at 250 bucks from the local store in town
2. Buy a similar quality coat from Wal-Mart - produced in a foreign country for 85 bucks

If you "want" or if you "need". 2 completely different things.
3. Check with the Salvation Army or Goodwill and find a perfectly good used coat.
4. Put off your "wants" and satisfy your "needs".

So I will repeat myself: Heck buy "Insert Home Country" always sounds good.

But it is not that simple today. If you think it is - then it is you that is the simpleton.

I don't assume that it is that simple. However the simpleton attitude of consumerism runs amuck in America. The consumerism mentality that drives America is slowly destroying it from within.

And then what - borrow more money? Again? Another trillion dollars of stimulus?

Sooner or later someone has to pay the bill - and it will be far higher than you might think.

I for one don't underestimate the price of what is happening. The politicians will borrow more money again, and then they are going to print more of it to pay it off. The price that our country is going to pay will be the thing that nightmares are made of…..

Part of the problem is that we in the US have a disposable attitude..so we will just buy a "cheap" something made in china and replace it.....

No one will be buying anything if they don't have jobs...so I say buy US products & keep some $ here.

The disposable attitude has been beaten into the brains of every person in the world. If business can't continue to sell you products over and over, perhaps they won't be as large a company. Perhaps on the other hand, if the product lasted, you would have more disposable income to spend on other things that might be produced by the same company.

A lot of things aren't even made in the U.S. anymore, so you don't have the option of buying American. So many companies are outsourcing to other countries because it is cheaper. Its all about the money, people don't think about the long term effects. The American workers are suffering because they are losing work and the Chinese, etc. workers are suffering because they don't get paid squat. Also, a lot of these countries don't have the same regulations we do regarding manufacturing which is why there are problems with lead paint in toys, etc. I think the best approach is to just buy local when you can. Sometimes you just don't have a choice.

Buy local, buy regional, buy national .... when you can. It's not always possible however.

I resent buying "made in China" the worst. They learned the lesson of corporate greed and expoitation from the West too well. There has been expose after expose about the horrid working conditions s much their labor force is exposed to. China is the country that put toxins in pet food ingredients and BABY FORMULA for Pete's sake, for a few more bucks. They had to shut down factories for months to try and clear up the smog in Beijing for the Olympics. Gee, I wonder if any of the working stiffs employed at those factories got paid for their P.R. layoff time??

Pick up a package of shrimp, tilapia, much frozen seafood. "Product of China". I put it down and walk away because I don't even want to speculate what corners were cut or how horrid the production scenario was that brought it halfway around the world at that price.

Toxins in the pet foots, baby formula, milk, hamburger buns made from cardboard, and the list goes on. How about brake parts for your car/truck that were cast in sand molds instead of forged? So many times, there is a reason for things being so much cheaper, and you're going to pay for it!

I don't pick up ANY food from China. I also don't pick up any seafood that is not wild caught, regardless of which country it comes from. Study up on fish farming and you won't eat farmed fish.

Somehow we must switch from being a consumer nation and become a productive nation. I have no dought that we are in for some very tough times ahead.

Exactly.

I'm not for trade protection or closed borders. I do think that we should take care of our own. I also think that we should support buying locally or regionally as much as possible.

I still think that we need to manufacture more than debt instruments………

 

[I luv herfrds]

hayray you made the statement that union workers are over paid low skilled workers.
I'm a former Union worker. Get your facts straight before you make that type of statement.
I will leave it there before I get this thread locked.

 

[bigbull338]

yes we all need to buy american made goods as much as we can.but have yall realized how hard that is.esp when you go look for things made in the USA.an how can we do that when we cant find made in the USA much anymore.alot of stuff comes from overseas but assembled in america.

 

[Dave]

I can and do buy boots made in USA. Danner's made in Portland, Oregon. They cost $250 a pair. Now I could buy top of the line sold at WalMart for $100. But the American made boots last 4 or 5 times longer. Which is the better buy for me and which is better for the American economy? I have found in general that things made in America may cost more but the quality of the product more than makes up for the increase in cost. A person can't always buy American made but I always look.

 

[TexasBred]

hayray you made the statement that union workers are over paid low skilled workers.
I'm a former Union worker. Get your facts straight before you make that type of statement.
I will leave it there before I get this thread locked.

Herf..go read it again. It wasn't a blanket statement about unions....good or bad...only that the folks the media etc. is worrying about in this economic situation IS the union worker. And that would appear to be a 100% true statement. All you have to do is read the news:

President Obama quietly signs Pro-Union Executive Order
February 9, 2009

While everyone is talking about the pork laden stimulus that Obama and many Democrats in Congress are pushing, President Obama very quietly signed a pro union executive order on Friday. It ordered the use of union labor for federal construction projects. This is one of the most blatant payoffs I have ever seen.

"President Obama's executive order will drive up the cost of government at a time when we should be doing everything possible to save taxpayer dollars. Federal contracts should go to the businesses that can offer taxpayers the best value - not just the unions who supported the Democrats' campaigns last year. Quietly signing executive orders to payback campaign backers undermines Obama promise to change Washington. It is a disappointment for Americans hoping for more transparency and less politics as usual in Washington." It is nothing less than a payoff to the unions who supported his campaign with both money and troops. And the fact that it was done with no media coverage shows that he once again is trying to slip one by Americans, which is anything but transparent.

 

[MO_cows]

Ok everyone is talking about the American worker. Consumer - consumers are benefiting from the products that we can buy for cheap prices. We have never before been able to buy so many things as cheap as we can now. I heard somewhere that most Americans are actually self employed, the politicians are falling for the liberal media hype about how many workers are losing their jobs, - and workers to them usually means organized labor like unions. There has just been some legislation signed that will strengthen the competitive edge for organized labor. The average consumer is just strengthening their competitive edge by buying cheap foreign made products because the manufacturing industry is so unfairly tilted to over-paid low skilled union labor that makes products priced above market value so those American made products are lossing the competitiveness. So it is unfair to blame Americans for wanting disposable products but rather a good portion of American workers have been getting over-paid for completely un-skilled labor that a monkey could do. Consumers are the big winners here and jobs are not lost, they are transferred to higher paying tech jobs and consumer services.

TexasBred, you might wanna read it again. I took it as very anti-union, too, and didn't appreciate it one bit. HayRay seems to believe that my union-member husband, son and friends are unskilled monkeys???

Everybody probably knows of some total idiot that didn't deserve their job but got to keep it anyway with a union's help. But that is by far the minority. Unions do a lot more good than harm, IMHO. Union benefits have saved our bacon more than once with the disability benefit.

 

[TexasBred]

Well maybe the stimulus will bail you out again. Should we hire union only even if less qualified and more expensive?? That's what got us here to begin with. I'll stick with Hayray on this one.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Redcowsrule almost all Cat equipment is made in Japan. Cat is owned by Shin Mitsisbushey or how the he$$ ever you spell it.

 

[hayray]

Well I have obviously offended some of you union workers on here, as was mentioned, it was not a blanket statement - but stated that over-paid workers - for their skill level - do make many U.S. products non-competitive. If any of you are not in the "over paid and unskilled " category then you not need be offended - sorry. However, look were I live, South EAst Michigan, Home of UAW and which I have many neighbors who are members, and I know how over paid a lot of them are for their work, many make way over $100,000/yr for unskilled labor.

 

[Wewild]

Redcowsrule almost all Cat equipment is made in Japan. Cat is owned by Shin Mitsisbushey or how the he$$ ever you spell it.

Most of our debt is held by China. It don't make me feel good at all. Seems like the makings of a feud sometime down the road.

 

[hayray]

China's economy will crash and burn eventually also. No economies are immune to down cycles so I am not worried at all. Remember back in the 80's when there was such a fear about Japan owning everything because the Japanese were investing so heavily in North America? Well they ended up having a severe recession and lost alot of the U.S. investment. A good percentage of us on this board are farmers and ranchers that are completely self employed, how is the stimulus going to help the self employed? - my guess it will only be in a negative way while organized labor will still get more leverage in their favor, this may make American made products even less competetive.