For our Buy Only American people. Have you ever had the chance to tell

[RB TexLa]

Poll question: For our Buy Only American people. Have you ever had the chance to tell

a foreigner face to face that you would not do business with them?

[NightWatcher]

1. why I was just in a sweatshop last Thursday and I said to the child labor slave....

er, I mean, No

[flvegan]

2. Foreigner, I don't do business with you!

Oh, the jokes write themselves sometimes.

[NightWatcher]

3. you're as cold as ice

[flvegan]

11. That's

Jukebox Hero to you.

[Bluebear]

25. :)

[Ignis]

30. ...And DUzy Quote Bingo is underway!

:rofl:

[Starry Messenger]

32. this!

:D

[SidDithers]

46. Never gets old, does it...

:applause:

Sid

[provis99]

4. No, I thank the Chinese everyday for useless, crappy junk.

Thanks for the broken sawdust board computer desk from Walmart, China! Glad I didn't buy a quality, lifetime guarantee American built desk for $100 more!:patriot:

[treestar]

5. No they would

They would sell to them and certainly allow them to come to the US to invest.

Every once in a while a thread appears that a company from someplace like Sweden or Germany is opening a branch in the U.S. And not a single poster ever says: maybe we should not steal jobs from Swedes. That's OK. It's just American firms that are not allowed to expand abroad.

[provis99]

7. who cares if the Swedes or Germans lose jobs to us?

We ain't Swedish or German; tough luck for them. I'm interested in American jobs, I don't give a damn if Swedes or Germans have jobs. Besides, they owe us for saving their butts after World War II with the Marshall Plan.

[Art_from_Ark]

22. Sweden was officially neutral during World War II

There was no fighting or bombing in Sweden, so we didn't really "save their butts". They did help rescue Jews during the war, and at least one of them, Raoul Wallenberg, paid for it with his life.

[treestar]

34. Um, this means you don't care if we lose ours to the Chinese

tough luck for us?

The Marshal plan was over half a century ago! How long are these countries going to "owe" us and what do they owe us if we extract so much in return? How long does it go on before they are paid up?

[Forkboy]

39. Oy vey.

:eyes:

[SimonPhoenix]

58. You have a good understanding of American history, obviously.

So does Sarah Palin. :puke:

[sasquatch]

9. Well its different

You see the Swedes and Germans do that hoping to sell products in America. We on the other hand do that so we can ship the product back to the USA and make big $$$ off of it with slave labor cost. So you see apple and oranges.

[Elwood P Dowd]

24. Insanity

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. With over 25 years of the same shit you support, the results are in. We are getting clobbered, and your pathetic attempts to justify it are laughable. It's the bottom line that counts, and ours is NEGATIVE!

[treestar]

35. I haven't supported any of it

I have made an observation.

When unemployment was 4.7% in the U.S. this was happening.

And now the crisis is global. So it hardly matters. We do not have to engage in difficult-to-defend "Americans are somehow inherently more deserving" sort of crap. We just want the economy to improve globally.

[Elwood P Dowd]

42. You consistently defend the fake free trade deals and corporate outsourcing.

You can't improve the economy globally when the world's largest economy, the USA, is being gutted of it's economic base -- the middle class! It's being gutted thanks to supply side economics and insane investment/outsourcing deals masquerading as so called "free trade". These fake free trade deals put us at an enormous disadvantage with our trading partners and are killing us financially. We charge 2% tariffs and no VAT on foreign imports, yet our trading partners often have tariffs in the 22-40% range. Many of them hit US imports with VAT charges of up to 30%. So you see, we are not asking to be "more deserving" as you claim, we are just asking for a fair deal where everyone plays by the same rules.

[treestar]

44. Trying to understand it and not always falling for us "poor Americans"

is not defending some great disadvantage to Americans.

The financial crisis is global. The world is not likely to think, "oh, those poor Americans. We'd better keep ourselves living in third world poverty so they don't suffer some lessening of their previous hogging of world resources."

I do not pretend to be an expert of free trade agreements, but we have to trade with somebody, or there is no way we are the leading economy. That's for North Korea and the like.

If you want to argue that various of the agreements did not help us and disadvantaged us too much, go for it.

But I don't automatically jump on this idea that jobs only leave the U.S., none ever come in to the U.S. and that the global economic crisis can be attributed to the sufferings of the U.S. We have consumed an disproportionate share of world resources for too long for me to have the gall to claim we are the sufferers whenever someone not American gets a break somewhere.

[Elwood P Dowd]

49. How can you equate wanting fair trade rules with

"...not always falling for us poor Americans?"

Also, you have to look at the bottom line in regards to jobs coming and going. Sure, some jobs have been created, but far more jobs have been lost. You need to at least break even with jobs and the current account, but with our insane trade policies we are losing our ass with both. We have a 15 trillion dollar economy and when ours goes into the trash, most of the rest of the world ends up there with us. We need fair trade, not the fake free trade we've been embracing the past three decades.

[sasquatch]

6. No, but someone I know once did and I felt proud about working with the guy

[Better Believe It]

8. No. I don't get into that working class dividing bull shit.

My conflict is not with workers in Europe, Latin America, Africa or Asia.

The enemy is at home.

Let the right-wingers spread that hatred and fear of "foriners" and "Merica First" crap.

It's about class, not race or nationality.

[Hello_Kitty]

10. Take your olive tree and your Lexus and shove them up your ass. eom

[OhioBlue]

12. your poll kinda belittles consumer awareness

for example - I don't have a "buy American only" policy, but I do try to make better choices in what I buy.

For example I'm trying to buy "fair-trade, organic coffee" not b/c it is "American" but b/c it is environmentally repsonsible and helps local farmers in other countries rather than buying it from a Corporation that exploits people and resources in other countries.

Same thing with many goods I buy - if I can get them local, and take the corporations out - I do.

buying cheaply made stuff from Corporations that outsource for the bottom line only promotes exploitation of the workers in other countries, is harmful for the environment and poses risks to our families - like the toys made in China filled with lead and other harmful substances.

Also I am trying to make food purchases in a more educated way - more local, more from small farmers and more organic. It is healthier and better for the environment.

I have nothing against a worker in another country trying to make a living - I have a problem with the Corporations that exploit them, destroy their environment and ship back products that are substandard and skirt safety standards.

[tularetom]

13. No but i'd like to tell the CEO of an American company that sent its jobs overseas

that I wasn't gonna buy any of his crap until he put Americans back to work.

You've set up a false conflict here. It isn't the foreigner's fault that Americans are out of work. It's the greedy fucking pigs that run American companies that have moved their manufacturing operations to Asia and elsewhere.

[Bluebear]

14. Yes, I have foreigners approaching me every day. Belgians, Koreans, Uruguayans...

I tell them "No! No! I will not do business with you! Away with you!"

:silly:

[spoony]

15. LOL

Whatever helps you sleep at night after a long day of stabbing American workers in the back.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. It should tell you something when people are voting "yes" to your b.s. push poll. eom

[cherokeeprogressive]

19. I tried to buy some hash from a guy in Palma, Spain. He tried to rip me off.

I told him to go pound sand.

[Bluebear]

20. Was he foreign?

:rofl:

[Elwood P Dowd]

21. I just made a business deal with one

to pay you a visit and ask for your job, your health care, your car, and everything else you own. I told him that we have to take care of the poor foreigners first, and you are leading the charge, setting the example, and giving up everything just to help them.

[Another Bill C.]

23. It's a practical matter

Since 1985, we've been importing several times as much from China as we've been exporting to them at a steadily increasing rate. In September of 2009 we imported over 5 times as much from China as we exported to them. Some economists are warning that the trade deficit is a bigger threat to our economy than the budget deficit.

[salguine]

26. It's also a challenge to Buy American when we don't actually make much any more.

[depakid]

28. You make scotch tape

[Pavulon]

37. Only stuff that kills people when it fails.

like pressure vessels for reactors. Rocket motors, scuba gear, very high end electronics and avionics.

If your shitty chinese mr coffee burns your house down that sucks. If your shitty chinese steel fails in a high pressure reactor chamber well someone may loose an eye.

[Blue_Tires]

38. we make plenty of guns

[treestar]

50. That has been debunked

We are the world's number one manufacturer to this day.

[Posteritatis]

27. (facepalm) nt

[Ignis]

29. I'll see that and raise you one.

[proteus_lives]

31. Yep.

Screw'em if they don't like it.

America has to look out for Americans first.

[Elwood P Dowd]

33. You have been promoting the outsourcing of US jobs FOR YEARS on this forum!

Will you ever stop? Just how many of us have to lose our jobs before you GET a freaking clue?

[OhioChick]

43. Oh...someone else noticed? n/t

[Elwood P Dowd]

45. Yep, he and one of his friends are on this thread.

Two of the usual 5-6 suspects that continue their delusional defense of our suicidal trade policies.

[anonymous171]

52. People only care when they lose THEIR jobs.

Tech people used to mock blue collar workers' protests against free trade. Then when the techies started losing their jobs to immigrants, suddenly free trade was totally wrong and needed to be abolished. Outsourcing is great for people who already have employment and money.

[Edweird]

55. A lot of the 'tech' people here still don't get it and only care about 'whitecollar' jobs affected.

Outsourcing their job is wrong, but if they can save a few bucks on remodel, then fuck Americans.

[Pavulon]

36. Sure have. In the hundred million dollar range.

large aircraft engine facility contract to build in latin america. Did not go there, ended up in the US. I lost money in the end but it was a good thing for washington state.

[Brickbat]

40. I don't have to. I let my dollars say it for me.

The dollars I spend on goods made in the U.S., that is.

[Xithras]

41. Does "over the phone" count?

If so, I've done it many times. I've had a few try to argue with me about it, but I just hang up because it's not worth the effort.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

47. You're asking me if I tell them...

"I don't business with you?"

[Fumesucker]

48. Have you ever made an OP that didn't get instantly unrecced into oblivion?

I'm genuinely interested because I don't ever recall seeing one.

Oh, and FWIW, I buy almost nothing new anyway, any major purchase is used, recertified, rebuilt or whatever.

[Bluebear]

53. I think there is some kind of self-flagellating club here

3 or 4 posters who get off on the unreccing in some weird fashion :)

[Fumesucker]

57. Yeah, I know one of the others you speak of..

Hmm.. I wonder if they have a contest going to see who can get the most unrecs?

[Bluebear]

61. lol

[anonymous171]

51. Corporations (foreign or domestic) aren't people. Do not ask me to treat them as such

[Throd]

54. I removed the seatbelts from my car.

[HughBeaumont]

56. Yep, I don't know why he's still here either.

Really, I don't know HOW he's still here.

[Bluebear]

60. Puzzlement.

[treestar]

59. Somebody I was talking to in real life brought up an aspect of this

China subsidizes its businesses - the dictatorial regime has powers over businesses but likewise gets involved. Back in the 80s when the country we all complained about was Japan - similar thing. They protected their markets for their businesses.

We don't do this - or, not much, due to Republican resistance. They are so attached to laissez-faire in economics - when the U.S. government assists an American business, it is a "bailout" and Republicans are forever getting into power and screaming about their idealistic view that the market is best unregulated. As a country we are so stuck on a romanticized view of capitalism.

Obama said he wanted to have no tax cuts for companies hiring abroad - and I bet it is the Republicans who get in the way of that.

[H2O Man]

62. American-grown pot?

Can't remember for sure.