Buy American & Buy USA (cutting our own throats )

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.unions.org/union-benefits/articles/buy-american--buy-usa.html

Buy American & Buy USA

* Written By: Unions Admin, Cindy Maddy
* 9/17/2009
* Categorized in: American Made Products

The solution is too simple. The American people need to start requiring the government, that works for us, when using our money to purchase all goods and services bought on our behalf, to be only from United States sources. That is what our founding fathers wanted.

The concept that they are saving us money by buying off-shore is bogus, as the jobs lost and subsequent lost income will eliminate the ability for us to buy American made products. This can only exacerbate the increased unemployment, and cause company bankruptcy. Don't be fooled, their intention is to grab more power by making us all poor, and by controlling more big business.

The greed of us all wanting lower prices is also cutting our own throats in the process. The government and businesses, as well as the consumer has forgotten what made this country the greatest in history. To just flush it all away, and end up just another poor socialist country is a tremendous waste of our divinely enspired founding fathers vision, and the lives of all those that fought and died to keep us a free nation and a great Republic. --JB

[pscot]

1. Kicked and recommended

Most beaurocrats and politicians have never worked in a factory. They don't really get it.

[Better Today]

2. Wouldn't it be best for unions to not be necessary, ie to have strong worker rights laws

that don't require anyone to put out dues or have organizations specifically for worker's rights?

[ret5hd]

3. Why NOT have org's specifically for workers rights, regardless of laws?

[Better Today]

4. I guess I just feel that workers shouldn't have to pay anyone for their

right to fair wages, fair hours, fair treatment, etc.

The fact that as a nation we have to have some entity other than our government protecting us just seems wrong, humiliating, and embarrassing.

[ret5hd]

6. I'm sure corp's and other businesses feel humiliated and embarrassed belonging to...

Chamber of Commerce, even tho practically EVERY law is designedd to protect business.

[Better Today]

7. Good point, but unlike workers, they have money to throw around.

[ret5hd]

9. You should research the difference between union wages and non-union wages.

[Better Today]

11. All I'm saying is that union wages should be available to all without the union. I've

always been a bit pissed about unions because as office personnel, guess who never got to reap the benefits therein. It's been a sore spot with me for years. EVERYONE should have access to the types of benefits that unions assist with.

[Tansy_Gold]

12. sounds like sour grapes to me

I was usually office personnel, too, and it griped me that the people out in the factory were represented by a union and got better wages and benefits than I did. It really griped me when I was treated unfairly by my superiors, was accused of doing things I didn't do and then had to defend myself to higher management with no one to back me up.

But why should I blame the union for that? Or suggest that other workers shouldn't have a union becaue I didn't?

Government of, by, and for the people will not exist if the people don't have a unified voice. Sometimes it takes a union to enforce the laws, or to get the laws passed that should be to protect the workers.

Don't begrudge your fellow workers the right -- the RIGHT -- to organize and bargain collectively. If you think they're getting a better deal, maybe you should find a union to represent you.




Tansy Gold

[ret5hd]

13. Office personnel are entitled to unionize. Why didn't you step up to the plate?

[ret5hd]

33. Hello? Hello? Testing one two. Is this thing on?

[dotymed]

23. Without the Unions

The "laws" would either slowly or suddenly be changed and their would be no large organization tool in place to stop it. Americans, especially unorganized, are so docile that there would hardly be a peep and no "news at 11."

[jwirr]

27. Absolutely, if governments protected workers then the whole world

would be covered by fair labor laws. It just does not work that way as we can see in the health care fight corporations are looking out for only one thing - profit. Without union we would not have any higher standard to work toward. As office staff in a county office we were unionized and worked closely with all other county workers. Actually the office staff had the most workers so we were the strong arm of the union.

[Omaha Steve]

32. That will never happen and here is why!

Of ALL the industrialized nations, the USA has by far the lowest amount as a percentage of workers in unions.

Of ALL the industrialized nations, only the USA has NO mandatory paid maternity leave. No mandatory paid family leave. NO mandatory sick leave. No mandatory employer sponsored health care or national health care.

Need I say more?

[deadmessengers]

5. "That is what our founding fathers wanted."

While I agree with the overall piece, the quote in the first paragraph about our Founding Fathers seems to be a bit of a reach from my perspective. While it's certainly possible that our Founding Fathers foresaw the advances in transportation technology that enabled global manufacturing and shipping, I have to say, I'm incredibly skeptical about this statement.

Does anyone have a citation or a quote or anything else to back this up, or did the author of this piece just pull that out of their ass and blow their credibility in the first paragraph?

[Better Today]

8. +1 I saw that also, but decided to not harp on it as I've harped on a few other posts

today and I figure I should self-limit some of the pickier stuff.

[koski]

14. Hamilton's Plan

Hamilton's Economic Policies

the federal government should, Hamilton argued, adopt a broad range of policies that would encourage Americans to spend their money and their energy on the advancement of technological change in industry. The policies included, in addition to the public finance measures that Hamilton had already championed successfully, tariffs crafted to protect new industries; exemptions from tariffs for raw materials important to industrial development; prohibitions on the exporting of raw materials needed by American industry; promotion of inventions; award of premiums and bonuses for "the prosecution and introduction of useful discoveries" by a federal board; inspection of manufactured goods to protect consumers and enhance the reputation abroad of American manufacturing; and improvement of transportation facilities.

[lildreamer316]

15. Welcome to DU!

:hi:
and thanks for the link and info.

[Oldtimeralso]

18. Welcome to DU,

Thanks for the link. I always thought that the purpose if government is to provide for the common good.

[demwing]

24. Read the NEXT paragraph

The "Founding Fathers" were not all in agreement with Hamilton:

In response, in March 1792, Congress passed most of the tariff program Hamilton had proposed: increases in tariffs on manufactured goods, including the iron and steel of Pennsylvania, and reductions in tariffs on raw materials. However, Congress rejected the rest of Hamilton's policy for manufactures. Jefferson and Madison hated the prospect of an industrial revolution and believed that Hamilton had already gained excessive power and might even be plotting to replace the Republic with a monarchy.

[bhikkhu]

19. Here's a good link about "mercantilism" in the colonial period

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/chapter5section4.rhtml

It would have been common knowledge to the founding father types, and a lot of what happened leading up to the revolutionary war dealt with trade and manufacturing issues. Interestingly, the manufacturing bases and trade positions that the US was built on have, during our generation, mostly eroded to insignificance.

[jwirr]

28. I assume that the OP is referring to the fact that the original tea party

was about forcing us to buy English tea and pay taxes for it when we could have bought our own products. England was dictating our import laws and preventing us from building our own economy without their approval.

[blue97keet]

10. The trade deficit drove the financial meltdown,

and the architects of the grandiose globalization scheme still do not understand how it is all wired together.

[divideandconquer]

16. The smart ones know, they just don't care!

[pundaint]

22. A contributing factor to the reduction of real wages for the average American, but

not even close to derivatives, fraudulent securities bundling, a complicit rating process, and a corrupt congress.

[JDPriestly]

25. But pundaint all those scams were invented to make up for the

obvious fact that the U.S. has no or at least very few real products to sell or export. We sell the products of others, products made overseas or south of the border. And because those products of others are made for so little money and because the profits made on them are taken overseas in offshore accounts, Wall Street had to create imaginary products and investments for hapless pension funds, school districts and you and me to invest in. I know this is way oversimplified, but there is a kernel of truth in what I am saying.

One of the worst things about our loss of manufacturing and the resulting loss of real jobs is the loss of tax revenue. This year that loss is very obvious.

Eventually, our credit will be denied. And how will we maintain our public water, energy, transportation, education and other resources then?

Of course, the vultures of private industry and our foreign creditors are looking to grab and interest and squeeze us. But, let's face it, as things are going, if we don't get our country back together and reconstruct our manufacturing and agricultural base so that we are relatively self-reliant, there won't be anything to squeeze. Or do they plan on turning us into slave labor as they have the Chinese and Indians?

[bertman]

17. Recommend. This is a concept that is elegant in its simplicity but many of us Americans

are so materialistic, ignorant, and short-sighted that we do not understand that buying lots of cheap, foreign-made shit harms us all in the long term.

I have been trying to convince my friends, family, and co-workers that buying Chinese crap at WalMart is not in their best interest, but they just look at me like I'm crazy and say "but I can get it a lot cheaper there."

Very frustrating.

[tom_paine]

20. K & R

[NorthCarolina]

21. I'd love to buy only American made products.....but

what do we make here anymore besides autos, airplanes and military weaponry (using imported steel)? I can't think of any appliances, clothing, undergarments, small electronics, audio/video equipment, lighting, home construction materials, footwear, furniture, utensils, tools, etc. that are made in the USA. If I was in the market for a Battleship or an F-15 That would be one thing, but good luck trying to find a pair of skivvies made in the US.

[katkat]

29. there was a made in the usa thread just recently

I am too lazy to find it, but a lot of stuff is still made here, including stuff on your not list.

[Tansy_Gold]

31. the google is your friend

"Made in America" underwear

http://www.unionlabel.com/


http://lingerie.lovetoknow.com/Men's_Boxers_Made_in_the_USA

http://www.toysmadeinamerica.com/clothes.html


http://allusaclothing.com/


http://www.midnitexpressions.com/about-us.html

http://www.wickers.com/


http://www.apparelsearch.com/America.htm (lots of links)


There, that should get you started.


Seriously, folks, it may take some time and effort, but isn't it worth it to search out and buy from American manufacturers? American craftsman? Maybe it DOES cost more, but is the bottom line the only thing that matters to you? (And that's a rhetorical you, not a direct you you.) If so, then there isn't a whole lot of difference between you and any ordinary money-grubbing goooper.

I make and sell a variety of casual women's fashion accessories. At an art I show I did recently, a woman of my acquaintance approached my display and was looking at one of my items. "But I could buy three of them for this price at XXXXX's," she said, mentioning a popular chain store.

"Yes," I replied, "you could. But you'd also run the risk of seeing someone else the exact same one. With mine, you know it's not made by slave labor, and it's one of a kind."

She didn't buy from me, and a few days later I saw her with the comparable item she had purchased at XXXXX's, on sale for indeed about 1/3 the price of mine. And she was rude enough to brag about it. Then up walked a mutual friend wearing an identical item, bought at the same shop for the same low sale price. Neither of them, of course, would ever wear the item again for fear of being seen together, and yes, I have acquaintances who are that fashion paranoid.

I ended up selling that particular item to another woman who later told me she had received many compliments on it. "If you buy something from XXXXX's, everybody knows it's from them and they all know how much you paid for it. It kind of takes all the fun out of wearing new stuff. Wearing the one you made has been a lot of fun."

I proudly offer the disclaimer, therefore, that I have a vested interest in promoting both Made in USA and hand-made by local artisans and craftspeople. Check 'em out. You might find something you like.



Tansy Gold

[treestar]

26. But does it matter, so long as foreigners buy American products?

So long as someone is buying what we make (and we are the biggest manufacturer in the world) what does it matter?

[Omaha Steve]

30. All of what we have left to sell doesn't equal OIL alone

This continual imbalance hurts the dollar etc...

[southernyankeebelle]

34. If people want us to buy american than we need raises. I shop at Wal Mart

not because I love it but because of neccessity. My family makes less than $35,000.00. I would love to go to our little american store here in town but the little girls cloths are outragely priced. I can buy 3 outfits for my granddaughter vs 1 outfit at the all american shop. Come on I already buy american cars. I try to buy american when I can see prices are resonable.