Reply #6: Well..don't want to sound funny here. ..but, I was a "Craftsperson" (the term in the late 70's

[KoKo]

for folks like me who could sew ...do crafts projects and make candles out of beeswax (before bee's death) and "natural wool dyers and weavers" and makers of "jarred jams, pickles and such" who sold at markets for a "fair price."

Walmart and China CUT US OUT! It's a proven. If anyone does "Handcrafts, Homecrafts, Food Products or other goods MADE IN USA...we were CUT OUT BY WALLMART and GLOBILIZATION.

Believe it or not...the "Snowbirds" who travelled by car from NothEast through the whole East Coast down through VA/NC/SC/GA to get to FLORIDA for DECADES...had wonderful things to buy.

The Mills in the South (the owners having moved shop from New England down to the South) had "Seconds" that they sold low cost. They were making garments for Top US Designers, and the Enviro Crowd from LL BEAN/Lands, REi and others. The Top Designers were Liz Claybourne, Ralph Lauren, Eddie Bauer Designers, the sheet & Pillow and Bra Manufacturers like "Cannon Mills" (now big Repug Globilization Supporters, Westpoint Pepperell and Bali Bra...Vanity Fair (female and male underware manufacturers)

All there....and all now in China. And the dyes in the goods: Pillows, Sheets, Bras, Tighty Whities and ALL KINDS OF CLOTH GOODS...now from CHINA, Indonesia, India... The goods smell of DYES and other Components that wouldn't have passed the CHEMICAL DYES TESTS of the old EPA, COMMERCE DEPT. or other Agencies?

I can't go on...this subject just upsets me so much as a "Craftsperson" who could make money in the '70's along with my fellow craftspersons, artists and other "hand good makers" ...who got cut out of a nice small living for our goods so that CHINA could co-opt our designs and took over the Fabric Manufacturers so that WE COULD ...NEVER COMPETE with folks who made 5 CENTS an Hour...and that they sent the fabric and other stuff we would use flooding here in to the US at Marked Up prices to cut us out of the CRAFTS BUSINESS where we could MAKE AND SELL and use our CREATIVITY.

I'm sorry...I should have links to all this...and I sound too bitter and angry about what happened to the US CREATIVES who WORKED and SOLD and made a living before Reagan and BUSH I who gave our living up to CHINA. (I'm NOT BLAMING CHINA...but USA POLICY...that threw all of us CRAFTSPERSONS ...UNDER THE BUS)

Sorry...I'll stop.. Most of you all wouldn't even understand what I'm saying... :-(

I don't want to sound as angry as I am...but, so many young people today who are CREATIVE...have NO OUTLET! They can't get material for art projects that doesn't come from WalMart and other jacked up Chinese Imports and they can't create unless they do designs and find a person in a Third World Country to Reproduce their Design and make profit to send back which used the skill of low wage worker.

Yet...for a time we "low wage Crafters" could get buy ...and now we can't, anymore because of US policies of Trade/Import/Expor...Imbalances!