I’m not going to wax political — I’m not that crazy – but it seems to me if we want more jobs in this country we need to make more stuff in this country. Where has all the common sense gone? We threw billions at the Wall Street fat cats who colluded with investors to offer impossible loans to people who had no business getting them. We threw billions at the automobile industry with the Cash for Clunkers program, we’ve spent $4 trillion on wars, and we’ve thrown hundreds of billions of dollars around with various bailouts.
I have an idea. Why don’t we start making things here? Why don’t we spend less on war and more on people. How about subsidizing industry instead of throwing it around? How about we pay Dell, Apple, Microsoft, and other companies who outsource their manufacturing to China, Mexico, and other countries to bring the work home to American workers.
Not everyone can afford to go to college; not everyone wants to. But just because they don’t want to go college or cannot afford it shouldn’t condemn them to a life flipping burgers, should it.
What if the government subsidized each computer, TV, cell phone, tablet, appliance, Blu-Ray Player, etc. — just enough to make it worthwhile to the manufacturer? Wouldn’t that be a good investment? The government would get their money back through income taxes paid by the employees – many of them people who are working minimum wage jobs right now or not working at all.
Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and the rest would have to pay their workers a living wage – not minimum wage.
Look around – not a single one of the billions of cell phones you see everywhere were made in the USA. Not a single computer, not a single flat panel TV, not a single computer monitor, and not a single tablet computer is made in the USA. Think how many jobs would be created if we made all those things here – millions – maybe tens of millions.
And by bringing the jobs back home, we’d no longer be subsidizing the Chinese government’s military and space programs. They’d actually have to innovate. develop and produce original products – not rip offs of other people’s ideas.
If we’re going to throw money around maybe we should throw it where we a decent chance of getting back more than we spent.
If you’re saying the government needs to stay out of our lives — good luck with that – it’s not going to happen no matter what party occupies the White House. So as long as were going to throw money around — how about throwing it where it will help the average person — the average family? Good jobs that pay a living wage and don’t require college degrees are almost non-existent. Isn’t it time we brought the jobs back home?
Would you pay a bit more to buy a quality product made in the USA over one made in China? I think I would. How about you?
Good article!
While I’m a Canadian not an American, the same thing applies here too. People talk about it all the time but nothing along that way gets done. They were also talking about hiring Chinese mine workers here but after a lot of utter disagreement from Canadians, they’ve decided against it. What was even more annoying about it was they were going to pay those Chinese workers much less per hour that they would be paying Canadians and the jobs, of course would go to them and unemployed Canadians would be out of work. Hard to understand, isn’t it!!
My – how things have changed over the years and not necessarily for the good.
Elementary my dear Watson,
Repeal NAFTA & GATT scuttle the WTO
Never heard this mentioned in the presidential
election campaign.
Agreed on the last paragraph the more you make and sell
usually it becomes cheaper.
While I agree completely with what you say, the fact is that we are just as much to blame as the companies that outsource these jobs. People do not want to pay for things if they cannot get it cheap enough. If they can’t get it at Walmart or the Dollar Store, then they balk against paying for it, because the price is higher. Until we are willing to pay for American made goods that, in turn, pay American workers a decent salary, companies will continue to outsource, because “we the people” think it is our right to have cheaply made goods over providing American jobs. Very sad, indeed.
Yes, I am definately a “buy in the USA person”. I have now decided not to shop at Walmart any more because the Chinese just bought them. They are going to change the name to “The Great Wall-Mart”. This is true!. What is our country coming to?
I, for one, will pay more for an item made in the USA. I search for them when I am shopping for everything from food to clothing. Hard to find for most items. Sad, I totally agree with you! Buying a baby gift a while back, I could not find anything that was made here in our own country. I finally bought a Gerber brand item, later found out it was made in Brazil!
In general I agree; however, Larry hit on something that came about with credit after Viet Nam, which in fact did little for individuals and a great deal for the banks – that being repetitive buying and replacing of products.
Owning products for years is no longer de reguere, in fact it’s laughed about; however, I still possess items I’ve had since the 1960s, even a 70s blender that a 40ish daughter threw out last year claiming I’d “had it since I was in grade school.” I did, and I knew each button on it, in spite of my now fading vision (eyesight that is). She said she’d buy a new one; she didn’t. I have, and 2 so far do not blend a full carafe as my old simple Waring did.
People want throw-a-ways, and buy very cheap fiberboard furniture. Believe me, a dining room chair that is solid cherry never weighed as much as one of my grown kid’s dining room chairs do now. Everything has to be “Country Lifeish” and enormous, to heck with the quality; it’s form over function.
This can’t be blamed on manufacturers, entirely. Yes, if they’re going to make more, they’ll do that; it’s you and I that controls quality and, via boycotting, the costs as well. Just MHO.
Proudly Made in the USA,flip it over and it says assembled in Mexico….wha? I don’t mind paying a bit more for quality,as long as it’s quality.Wasn’t there a story not too long ago about a Mi based store that proudly purported to be selling Mi made products,but they were actually from India? Just a tag swap was all it took.
There is just not any guarantees anymore about anything.You pays your money and takes your chances.
Mike
Very well said. This would take a lot of common sense which does not seem to be in good supply these days. I would like your permission to pass this along to my email friends with the source acknowledged.
I’m also a Canadian trying to buy things in Canada. We keep bringing in migrants to work in meat plants etc. while we have so many on welfare. Why are these people not contributing to these jobs? Our food Banks keep asking for more; hot lunches are given to school children(500 last count) because they come to school hungry. However, these parents still pay $12+ for ciggarets;drive nice cars, but wont work and are just satisfied to use my hard-working tax dollars.Make sense? I don’t think so!
I agree that we should buy american made products,but even so called american brand vehicles are sometimes manufactured over seas.for example,the chevy nova was manufactured in korea. the Last electronics products made in the usa was curtis mathis and zenith.they haven’t been around for years.
I am Canadian too, but the same applies here, I would definately buy goods made here, I remember growing up in the UK and no-one was without a job, plenty of work everywhere, if one didn’t like their job they could quit and have no problem getting a new job immediately… look at the Uk today, and Canada & the USA… we need to bring back those jobs, maybe we will see our countries & people start to flourish again.
i totally agree with buying American when we can. the only problem i have with it is that sometimes the prices are so outrageous i can’t justify buying the item. for instance, i was at a site touted as pure American business, and it was. they sold clothing…jeans, shirts, etc. but the jeans started at $130 and went up from there–rapidly! i’m sorry, but my backside never has and never will have anything on it with at that price. a dress? yeah, maybe. but jeans? nope. and their shirts were just as highly priced. so yes, i buy American when i can. it’s just too bad that so many can’t afford the prices asked.
Larry Hubble says:
Has totally missed the point Cloudeight was making.
If some of the trillions of dollars went to subsidizing Local companies so that they could manufacture goods at a cheaper price and passed on to the consumer price, then things would change for the better. But, the real question is, why or how has the Western society priced it’s self out of the market? Simply put, GREED, by unions supported by their members, pushing for higher wages in return for less effort, in most cases! Yes, I know, it’s the same here in Australia too! Guess what, I recently bought a Nikon camera, was it made in Japan? no wrong, made in China. So who’s winning, China ofcourse!
I couldn’t be in more agreement with this poster. Because of unions, most everything produced in this country (USA)is way overpriced. If it were possible to keep the unions out of the workplace, everything would be more reasonably priced.
I’d love to be able to say that I only buy American, but that’s just not the case. As a senior citizen on social security, we just don’t have the money to pay way more than we feel something is worth. We haven’t any choice but to buy Chinese and I wonder how many others are in the same boat?
I just had to put in my 2 cents. I agree with most of the comments. When I shop, if I can’t find what I want that has been made in the USA, I back off and most times I decide I really don’t need or want it after all. The trade deficit has been a real sore spot with me ever since China was given favored nation trade status. If I can possibly do without something that isn’t made in the USA, I walk away. Way to go TC. We should all have the nerve to stand up and say “lets put an end to it” and we, the shoppers of the USA are the only ones who can do it!
I agree with you and all the comments submitted but, having said that, you and the comments are way too logical and our Congress do not work on Logic. Don’t complain though; Citizens keep sending them back to Washington, D.C., to continue the illogical job they have been doing right along.
I recently saw a documentary on TV that in Mexico “made in the USA” is what Mexicans buy. We might not be able to buy it here, but they can in Mexico.
I watched several years ago, another documentary about the clothing industry. Beyond the wage issue, apparently, clothing manufacturers in many foreign markets can buy labels that say any country they want it to say, and sew those labels into clothing no matter what country the item is really made. In countries where that might be illegal to do, a way around it is to make it in …?, ship it to …?, where they sew the desired label in, then ship it to wherever they’e going to distribute it from. So you never know exactly where it was REALLY “made” …only what the label says.
You have to be aware of food with deceptive labeling, i.e., “packaged in…” then lists a US location.
So many products aren’t grown or raised in the US, but owned and operated by US company, grown or raised in another country, then shipped back to this country for “packaging” so they can “imply” that it was from US.
Makes you wonder how many times a “shipping cost” is added to the price before it’s even ready for selling..and they STILL make a giant profit.
Deception is everywhere. Don’t always blame the cost of labor here as being to blame (even unions)..that’s what “they” WANT you to believe in many cases. It’s the gangster PROFIT MARGIN they want. Many items could be made in the USA and sold at a fair and affordable price with US workers being paid a fair wage, reasonable benefits. The corporations would make an excellent profit….just maybe not a “gangster” profit that would match the current greed level that many CEO’s have been allowed to reach.
Any corporation listed on the stock exchange has Wall Street’s (and only the biggest shareholders) best interest …not the consumer’s best interest…..banks, insurance companies, etc…most anyone we are forced to deal with just to exist. Remove them from the Stock Exchange and then true and honest competition for the consumer’s dollar and serving their “customers” best interest would return to the market place.
What enabled them is the wonderful NAFTA.
I watched as they packed my job up , headed for Mexico where they pay a bag of rice for one weeks work . Government meddling is why the jobs are gone now, So we do not need subsidies . In four letters I can tell you why we have no jobs in the USA, it is N.A.F.T.A. before I watched my job leave I sat and watched as Bill Clinton went state to state stumping for the trade agreement that would bring devastation upon the American worker. I do agree that Unions have went to far but lets ask why there were Unions in the first place. It was because of the same greed that birthed unions that there are no jobs here today , not only that but the white slavery that took place along side the black slavery shows that really color is not separator of slavery . Forced overtime unreasonable quotas and poor and dangerous working conditions, Nice place to work forget it, before the unions were born you froze in the winter and burned up in the summer months. You told your family when you see me you know I am coming home. Government meddled in the finance sector and we all lost money and value of our homes went to the bottom. A friend lost 50,000 over night it was her nest egg , good bye nest egg. Until NAFTA is repealed and the companies are forced back because of high tariffs we will not have jobs here. Public unions should never have happened because there is no bottom line, the government is a loser company so to speak, I think FDR said it best the Union of a public employee will destroy not only the government but the nation , folks we are headed there and real fast. We have fell asleep at the wheel and allowed the miscreants in Washington break us .
Now we face pensions that only are dreamed about and yes it is for the lowly janitor at your local school
Back in the day, unions were good. Now the only thing I can see is that unions demand a higher wage for their members and that very demand is why the price of American made goods are so high (the owners of these companies have to make money too you know). I’m sure N.A.F.T.A. has it’s share of the blame as well.
So how is it fixed?
I have lived through the time period where I have seen the cost of a nice automobile go from $3,200 to $32,000. Labor has always been the cheapest tool so when it becomes one of the higher cost tools greed kicks in we are being lied to on a daily basis and we need to wake up. First home I purchased was %15,300 the last one I bought was 59,000. The money barons got afraid we might amass a small fortune with in our homes so now it is falling toward the bottom by design. Government at the higher levels do not have the peoples best interest at heart folks .
Also in total agreement, I’d like to point out that ABC World News with Diane Sawyer has been working on this subject for about a year. You can read about the progress that is (all too slowly) being made here, on the right-hand side of the page, under “Made In America.” http://abcnews.go.com/wn?cid=abccomsearch_results
(No, I don’t work for ABC news, but I follow this story.)
Wow, this must be a very touchy subject. I have NEVER seen this many comments about an article on this website. 🙂
Let me make this a little easier for everyone. If you really want to buy American, then here is a website for you.
http://americansworking.com/ This site is a directory of American made products. I hope you all use it and not just say you want to buy American. American made usually costs a little more – sometimes – but not always, so if you REALLY want to keep the jobs here, BUY AMERICAN!!!
My family has not shopped at Wal-Mart for many years now because we have been on a mission to buy products that have been made in America. There are many items however that are just not made in America no matter how long you look. It does make shopping for things more time consuming. Of course – things like TV’s – you can forget it. They do not make those in the USA any longer. It took us 3 months investigating and searching for our refrigerator. What an ordeal but we finally found a Whirlpool Gold that we happily paid more for because they do have a manufacturing plant in the USA. There are times that we have to take the lesser of 2 evils – if a product is not made in the USA – then we have found them to be made maybe in Mexico for instance and assembled in the USA. It has definitely been a learning process. Also – when we are shopping for an item in a store – we make it very known, whether we are in Lowe’s or a furniture store or wherever that we are looking for items that are made in America. If enough of us start requesting (and complaing when we don’t see American made items) that sends a strong message to stores. We’ve walked out of many a store saying no thank-you – we are looking for items that have been made in our country. It is well worth the effort.
If every one followed your example we would have more jobs, another side is tax increases during a recession will not create jobs
NAFTA is why they left so we need to either repeal that or modify it . Unions have went to far . Work rules and wages are the main reason there is so much friction . I also have a made in USA fridge it works .
Sorry to disagree with so many here, but unions have not been the problem. Think about it: the people who have made out like bandits are company executives and ultra rich owners and not union members. As a matter of fact, as union membership has declined, so have the wages of all other middle-class Americans. This is a chart that shows the relationship between union membership and middle class wages. You can copy and put this in your browser to see:
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/unionincome.jpg
The fact is that union membership helped to preserve wages and fringe benefits such as employer paid health insurance for all workers – even those who are not union members. When union membership goes down, it depresses the wages of most other wage earners.
A huge reason why so many people believe that union membership has cost jobs is that the ultra-rich such as the Walton family of Walmart have joined with other multi-billionaire owners of companies such as the Koch Brothers of Koch Industries (which produces a wide range of products such as Quilted Northern bath tissue) to fund organizations such as Americans for Prosperity to demonize unions. They wrap themselves in the American flag and claim that they are protecting freedom but they only thing they are protecting is their money. How? Destroying unions has been in their self-interest. These ultra-rich owners make more money when their employees’ wages are kept low, and they fight against their employees joining unions because with union membership, the whole purpose of labor unions is to uplift their membership. In state after state, the business that has the highest number of people on food stamps is Walmart because they don’t pay their people a living wage yet the Waltons are among the wealthiest people in the world. They and their ilk have formed organizations in which they have sunk huge amounts of money to portray unions as the problem and to fund politicians who vote according to their wishes.
Some of the people who have posted here have mentioned NAFTA and that jobs have been shipped overseas to workers who literally earn a dollar a day. Unions fought tooth and nail against NAFTA because they foresaw what that would do to the American workforce and industry. Ask yourself, who has benefited from NAFTA? Has it been North American workers or companies owned by very rich folks?
Don’t take my word for any of this. Please do some research while asking yourself all the while, “Who is benefiting from this?”