O Say Can You Buy?
Why going "Made in the USA" for a week left me hungry, broke, and half-naked.
i had been cursing up and down the aisles at the grocery store for half an hour when I finally found a can of black beans claiming to be "100% usa family farm organically grown." I was on a weeklong mission to buy only American-made goods, and my very first shopping trip had turned into a debacle. I'd been forced to put back the bananas, cherries, coconut, and chipotle peppers, and I was about to blow $15 on a tiny bottle of US-made olive oil.
I was hoisting the beans triumphantly above my head when my roommate approached. "What about the packaging?" she asked. I scowled at her. More of the world's aluminum comes from China than from anywhere else; the only way to know the origins of this particular can was to call the company—and it was Saturday. "Buying American is such a pain in the ass!" I wailed.
In 1990, when I was in grade school, I watched a union-sponsored commercial in which a mother told her little boy that they would have to move because Dad had lost his job—too many people were buying imports. As union jobs dried up, so did that campaign; now, 14 years into nafta, buying local is hot, but buying American is, at best, a joke (though in August Barack Obama dusted off the sentiment with his "Buy American, Vote Obama" slogan). When I told Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, that I was going to buy only American for a week, he laughed. "I'm very sorry to hear that.
"It's exceptionally hard, if not impossible, to be 100 percent pure," he explained. "There are just some things you can't buy. It's incredibly difficult and depressing."
Organic. Independent. A host of considerations drive my shopping habits, and I'd had a vague idea that "Made in" stickers ought to as well. But it wasn't until I actually tried that I realized how hard it is: To start, there's not a single marginally comprehensive listing of American-made products. Sure, you can search the databases at the afl-cio's UnionLabel.org and ShopUnionMade.org. But the selection is...slim. BuyAmerican.com is a store that features exactly one sweater, and man, is it ugly. And companies that do manufacture in the US don't seem to bother using it as a selling point. When I asked the shop-floor guy at New Balance, which produces some shoe styles domestically, whether they had any US-made clothes, he demurred. "There's really no call for that, so it wouldn't make sense."
I'd been putting off buying a bra, so I added it to my shopping list. The thought of American Apparel's Dov Charney making my underwear in between fighting off sexual-harassment lawsuits didn't really appeal, and I knew enough to rule out Victoria's Secret (Sri Lanka), H&M (Turkey/Cambodia), and Gap (Singapore/Bangladesh/Bahrain). So I headed to Nordstrom. After checking several dozen tags, I advanced on a saleswoman. "Excuse me," I apologized. "Do you have any bras that were made in America?"
"Ooh," she said, as if I'd just handed her something foul smelling. "That's a good one." She started to point, then stopped. "No, those are manufactured somewhere else," she mumbled. "No," she shrugged, scanning the vast lingerie selection. "There aren't any."
Anything I needed during that long week required hours of research and dozens of phone calls. Expensive domestic apples and strawberries busted my grocery budget. I'm still wearing a made-in-the-Philippines bra I bought in 2005. I failed my assignment and my country when out of desperation and frustration, respectively, I bought a pack of Sony CDs and a jar of peanut butter of dubious origin. The issue wasn't whether I could buy American—clearly, I couldn't. No, the real question was, Why should I even try?
I called Ravi Batra, a Southern Methodist University economics professor and best-selling author of The Great Depression of 1990, who reminded me that "it's important to revive our manufacturing base and create high-paying jobs." The US lost 212,000 manufacturing jobs last year alone, and the average manufacturing job pays $713 per week, nearly twice as much as the average retail gig. When wages go up, there's more employment because people buy more. When wages go down, people use credit. Patching this imbalance with debt means...well, we just found out. "In the end," Batra said gloomily, "there's a huge economic debacle."
While that's sort of compelling, not everyone agrees with that school of thought. "What's really important is that even if I'm not buying American, other countries are buying some American stuff," Vinod Singhal, Georgia Institute of Technology professor and editor of the industry publication Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, told me. "That's what trade is all about." Singhal allowed that there are practical reasons to buy American: Consumers are better assured that their purchase won't be coated with lead, or made by third-graders. But in the broader economic picture, overall US employment has remained steady despite our growing trade imbalance, and we still dominate in some high-tech, high-value areas. In 2007, US manufacturing sales were a record $5 trillion. Let Vietnam make our T-shirts, the argument goes; we're making jet planes. "It's a very resilient economy, and generally the economy bounces back when it's pushed to the edge," Singhal concluded. "I'm very confident about how America will respond to these kind of challenges. When the pain goes beyond a threshold level, that's when you tend to react."
I suppose. And granted, as a former English major I am in no way qualified to settle a long-standing dispute between the let-the-markets-rule camp and the save-domestic-industry set. But if the fact that I actually started clapping when I discovered American-made wax paper at Walgreens is any indication, the time to react might have arrived.
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I feel compelled to speak up on some of the comments made by Nicole in this article. She talked of BuyAmerican.com - but not in a very flattering light. While Nicole makes mention of the lone American-made sweater (which by the way, is NOT ugly - it is a very nice men's sweater - how "pretty" should it be?) offered at BuyAmerican.com (www.buyamericanmart.com), she failed to mention the 4,000+ other products available there - including products from such brand names as US Grown (canned fruit & vegetables that are 100% grown, processed & packaged here in the US!), Genie, Shop-Vac, Broil King, Holgate, Carruth Studios, Metropolitan Vacuum, Roy Toy, All American Clothing, Schaefer Outfitter, etc...The product selection covers everything from art to automotive, craft kits, food, coffee, gourmet desserts, clothing, toys, games, tools, sports & exercise equipment, jewelry, gifts, keepsakes and more. Perhaps if she had looked further at BuyAmerican.com, she wouldn't have been so discouraged about the possibility of buying American!
Laura Hultberg
Product Administrator
BuyAmerican.com, Inc.
that's amazing, because **we have the same problem in Canada**.
everything is imported (gee,I think all the American produce ended up in Canada, btw... looks like we're propping up the US agricultural industry. Can find plenty of Idaho potatoes in Toronto, but no PEI potatoes, for example)
lots & lots of Chinese & Latin American food, too...
bizarre.
Excellent post. Female underlings at www.spanx.com are all made in America, Charlotte NC in fact. They all cost more but I happily do without other unnecessities to get it.
I'm sorry Laura, but I'm going to have to agree with Nicole. There may be more items on BuyAmerican.com, but that sweater is really ugly.
Dear Ms. Hultberg,
I just checked out the buy american sweater, and yes: it's REALLY ugly. I don't know one hetro/metro/homo male that would allow that on their frame.
Sorry
As a guitarist, I can tell you that great instruments are made in the US. Almost always the top of the range ones. (Lesser models are mostly made abroad). They may be pricey, but they're the real thing, and a credit to the country.
You're too late. I was trying to buy American in the early nineties, and it was trying; now it's almost impossible. You can blame the jerks who shopped at WalMart, making the Walton family one of the world's richest while the corporation forced factory closures as companies scrambled to meet the pricing demands of the retailer by sending jobs first to Mexico and then to China. Daddy lost his job? Was Mommy shopping at WalMart? No one wants, or perhaps too few are able, to pay a fair price, so what little is produced here is often too expensive for the average American, ($4000. for a mattress set mfgd in San Francisco?). In any case, another problem is as Nicole suggested, the designs are often off. Lodge makes great cast iron pots, I have several, but their enameled versions are clunky looking and come in colors that only work in red white and blue kitchens. I like the PT cruiser, but I wouldn't want to own one. Does America even produce a reasonably attractive sedan or coupe? I can't think of one. And then of course, there are the American clothiers that make nice looking stuff, but in China. And there, the quality stinks. Buy Tshirts this year and they will be different looking and sized then the tshirts you buy from the same brand next year. I still try to buy American when I can. I try to support local growers, and merchants, but often they throw in obstacles of their own: If you have a website, why do you refuse to answer emails regarding your products? I can go sixty miles from town and see orchards of nothing but almonds, but I have to buy almonds from Spain and Italy because ours can't be sold raw, to accommodate the sloppiness of the larger producers; will the Cal. Almond Growers Assoc. respond to my concerns? Absolutely not. And, frankly, I don't get the argument of buying local over organic; pesticides are pesticides, the local version isn't any better for you. I won't buy foreign produce when California fields lay fallow for the season, but we don't grow bananas or mangoes, so it makes no sense to not buy those. I'll continue to try to do my part, and I will go out of my way if I have to, I'll even pay more, to a point; but it sure would be nice if American companies, farmers and merchants would be a little more helpful.
It's not that hard. Buy dry beans instead of canned. Soaking them is easy, and they are cheaper too.
Decent Exposures in Seattle makes wonderful bras and other clothes.
Ease into it over time and you will discover the resources you need. It doesn't all cost more, it's not made with child labor, and often, the quality is amazing.
I agree that it's not as easy as it should be, but between the farmers' market and shopping the edges of the store where the unprocessed source foods are, it can be done.
http://www.etsy.com/ is a great resource; everything on Etsy, including my sister's Three Sisters Goat's Milk Soap, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6095155 is handmade, the vast majority of it in America.
I agree. I live in Ontario, where we grow apples, carrots, onions, tomatoes, etc., and all I can find is produce from the USA and Mexico. It's criminal.
An example of deceptive labelling: "Europe's Best" frozen fruits and vegetables come from China and South America.
IMHO, this writer did not look that hard.
If you TRULY want to buy American, it is very simple in a grocery store, since most grocery items are grown in the US.
Or, you can choose to shop at Trader Vic's, who has removed all Chinese grown items from their shelves.
You can find American made items, but you have to go to the right places. If you shop at a Walmart or a Target, you are going to leave frustrated.
If you shop at a local company, you have a better chance, plus the benefit of the money staying local instead of going to Arkansas or Minnesota or to China.
If you TRULY had that hard of a time buying American made food, then perhaps you should shop somewhere else.
I worked in international trade for US Customs from 1970-1995 and I have watched one industry after another dry up and move to China. China cheats on everything. Before they got permission for low duty rates, they's trans-ship, that is, ship stuff to Panama, for example, and relabel it as Panama-made then ship it to the USA.
There are marking laws that say a consumer must be able to clearly know the country of origin at the time of purchase, but these laws are simply not enforced. I got fooled myself, recently. I was buying frozen organic spinach from two health food stores for months until I noticed, in very fine print on the back at the bottom seam , the "China" label. Now the bags themselves had huge pictures of some Wisconsin farm and the name of the USA distributor on the front in huge print. All this was in violation of USA marking laws, but, clearly, these laws are not enforced.
Try to find the origin country on electronics. If it is in the box, it will be on the bottom of the box it is sitting in, and you would need to turn the TV set upside down to find the "China" label. Now if this item were made in France, a prestige country, you can bet that "France" would be in two inch type on the top of the box.
Well, gee, Nicole, are you only now noticing that nothing is actually *made* in America anymore. The job loss express didn't leave the station that recently. We who live on the border know a bit about *maquiladoras.* The first thing to go was the textile industry: just too much carpal tunnel exercise for such a paltry pay. There are the occasional reversals: I have a straw hat with an Ecuadorian certificate of authenticity in it. But a stars and stripes label boasts, "Made in the U.S.A.," kind of oxymoronic, don't you think?
It just dawned on me that if we paid for the workers' health care, they might agree to work for less pay.
I'm puzzled as to why domestic apples would be expensive. Where do you live? Or was it, perhaps, not apple season? Eating seasonally helps, too.
If you want products made in America, there are many in the Lehman's Non-Electric Catalog. They can be accessed at www.lehmans.com. If you look at the links across the top of their webpage, the last one is "USA Made" and many are made by fine Amish crafters. Lehman's advertises items for "simple, self-sufficient living." It seems to me that's the way we should all be living these days. I can't praise Lehman's enough for the quality of their merchandise or the service they deliver.
Two points:
If you had bought all your seasonal produce, beans, and dairy at your nearby farmer's market, you certainly would not have starved, and packaging is a non-issue. Bring your own cloth bags.
And though this isn't exactly the point of the exercise, If you had shopped for clothes at a thrift store, you would have found many American, union-made clothes, and also would not have contributed to your carbon footprint.
I have a rule that I will not buy, if I have the knowledge, any food product processed in a country where I would not drink the water. This includes fake Danish cookies from Indonesia, and pickles from China in clear glass jars. Look on the package where Theragram vitamins are from and you will see it is China. I remember when Walmart had a Made in America campaign. Of course, Sam was still alive then and today the shelves would be totally empty.
Perhaps if the unions had not raised the wages higher & higher; american companies would not have moved their operations overseas.Remember companies are interested in one thing PROFIT. And your politicians are interested in the same thing. Remember YOU put them in office...notice the results. GREED is the American way! Wake up!
I wish I could buy American to help keep other Americans in work, to save energy, but also for quality (at least in many cases). I bought a new coffeemaker earlier this year (the old one just had too many problems) and had to return it right away because it was broken. I bought a new toaster oven last week and just took it back because it was broken. Americans are doing quality control on goods manufactured in China, but we're not getting paid for it!
American made bras and underwear (including some organic cotton) can be found at Decent Exposures:
http://www.decentexposures.com/
The bra styles are limited, but functional. They're made by women in a cooperative in Washington state.
The congress of the United States SOLD-OUT the people years ago. Go find something made in the "continental United States...Congress was paid off - and no longer "require a label for the country of origin" How do you boycott (for example) China if you can not tell which goods are made there?.?
WHEN I SAY CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES I MEAN NOT THE THIRD WORLD ISLANDS APPROVED BY CONGRESS TO APPLY THE MADE IN THE UNITED STATES LABEL TO -.- ASK WHICH STATE
Christmas is comming - along with the bailouts - directly supporting who.....
$700 Billion Dollars for the worst financial crisis since the great depression - SO the "TRAITORS" In Washingto tack on an additional $110 Billion Dollars for their PORK PROJECTS....The big three auto assemblers need a bailout so badly they flew to Washingto D.C. with their hands in their hands - ON PRIVATE JETS ?.?
.
..Buying Imported Garbage DOES NOT HELP THE "PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES" ...Bringing back the jobs would ----....----P U T -.- Y O U R -.- M O N E Y -.- I N -.- Y O U R -.- P O C K E T.......
I do pretty well buying American. For example, I shop @ my local Coop--all of the produce is labeled as to where it came from. If I buy food in season, I can buy US and even local food easily [no tomatoes in the winter time]. I quit buying hand & dish towels and washrags/dishrags because they were foreign made & poor quality. Instead, I buy yarn made in the USA [North Carolina] and and knit or crochet my washcloths, dishcloths, hand towels and dishtowels. I haven't yet begun to knit a bath towel, but I have about ten left over that I am still using. I extend their lives by not drying them in the dryer--remember clotheslines? There are lots of techniques. I also knit my own sweaters using US made wool yarn& cotton. There are options, but they require work, not just shopping. Also, if I cannot buy American, I try to buy from Canada or Europe where wages are higher and I am less likely to contribut to sweat shop labor. I buy Italian shoes and, yes, they are expensive, but they can be resoled and last a long time.
At least u guys have a choice to buy American products or not.We don't. Greece, or any other country controlled by the U.S.A, MUST buy American or perish. Arms, energy, computers etc. When we tried to make a deal with Russia for cheap gas and oil, the usa blackmailed us with the threat of war with Turkey.
When we made a deal with the E.E.C. (that's the European Union) for new fighter planes, the usa recognized the rogue countries of FYROM and Cossovo, sowing seeds of war for the future.
So, feel happy that u have the previledge to choose yr bras without fear of Malaysia attacking yr cities, or China threatening yr existence.
Thank u
Hay there Georgia Girl.
You are not alone. That aluminum was probably made from Australian Bauxite, in a furnace using Australian coal. If it had been steel same thing. and we buy the stuff back in manufactured goods and materials.My daughter was, very recently, and bought a pair of high fashion "French" shoes only to find the Fabrique en Chine. Philosophically she aid. I always say "I bought them in Paris."
I live in "Sunny Queensland." Also I am in the mountains and the only region able to grow pome fruits in Queensland.
Guess!! We often buy in our Supermarket
items such as strawberries , cookies, apples and citrus from the U S A and Mexico. Well I guess they use the same underpaid wetback labour and our local producers just can't compete.
P.S I have had two machines made in the u S A one a ride on mower another a walk behind. As far as I can see they are one of the reasons you aren't selling. I've just replaced them with a HONDA. The Americans had Briggs and Stratton motors and that was the only good thing about them, and even there they don't match the Honda.
I can remember buying a leather jacket in Texas and a pair of shoes in N J and believe me the quality was at least as good if not better, and more reasonably priced compared to Britain. But that was 1944/5.
SE Queensland AUSTRALIA
I've avoided US built cars for twenty-five years or so because they're pure junk but now, I believe most things made here are lessor quality than those made elsewhere
A great way to buy American food is to invest in Community Supported Agriculture. Each week you receive a box of locally grown in-season produce and meat from organically raised free-range livestock. Yum. You're never quite sure what you're going to get so it's a little like Christmas every time you open up a new box.
What an incredible load of rot! USAmericans and their corporatocracy rulers are forcing USAmerican products down the throats of the whole world with their neo-colonialism/imperialism and if we here in Spain (yes, I and my partner are ex-USAmericans living in much more progressive and advanced Europe/Spain) or the EU as a whole had a "Buy Spanish or European Union Only Products", "Made in Spain" or Made in the EU" campaigns the US government (and you all) would be complaining about unfair competition and file a complaint with its WTO against Spain/the EU. And you all would be talking retaliation against products from here - boycotting even! You are really something!!
You want the world to buy your products and it is dying from your McDonalds, Coca Colas etc and the unhealthy life style that goes with them, you want your products to be made by virtual slaves in developing countries working 6 or 7 days a week in deplorable conditions for a dollar a day which won't feed their families to make your Nikes and if they boycotted USAmerican products in protest you'd all join lock-step with Dubya and all the rest of the corporate-owned government in boycotting products from these countries and being patriotic sheep buying only "Made in the US".
You and your greedy corporatocracy/government/military-industrial congress would never put up with any other country lauching a campaign to "Buy Only Products Made In Our Own Country To Protect Our Own Jobs", whether it be the EU, Spain or Kenya. Bloody hypocrites. You've coerced the whole world to adopt USAmerican "values" of globalization, greed, materialism, over-consumption, IMF, World Bank, NAFTA, CIA/NSA installed rightwing dictatorships (they're US corporate friendly, after all) by your Economic Hitmen, Assassins, corporate arm-twisting and blackmail, military threats etc etc ad nauseum.
And you still have the incredible gall to ask "Why do they hate us so much?" Well, "Pride goeth before a fall" and the USAmerica is falling fast and hard, much to the relief of the whole planet. May it come sooner rather than later! Long live the EU where there is at least an effort in Ethical Capitalism - Capitalism with a human face where there are regulations controlling corporate greed and coercion and people still matter and where Human Rights and Civil Rights are are more than just a "jingoism" to hide all the US State-sponsored Terrorism and Neo-colonialism (neo-feudalism) being shoved down the world's collective throat. The USAmerica IS the Evil Empire! You're not paying attention you so-called "Progressives".
the subject is not as clear cut as you think. and don't blame american wages for the problem; it's the rich free mrkt capitalist that are the problem. it's called greed. i watched a report a couple of years ago on 60 minutes about how the ceo at madenform bras decided to close down operations in, i think nebraska which cost 700 ladies their jobs of 20 and 30 yrs.the operation was moved to mexico. cheaper labor. did madinform lower the prices of the bras to relfect the savings? no. where they losing money in the first place? no. this was just a simple move to increase profits and please shareholders. that's just corp greed. so don't blame china or anyone else. the millionairs/capitalist know exactly what they are getting in these contries. like matel and toys. they knew what they were getting, how else do you get that sort of cost savings. i refuse to believe someone w/an mba is that stupid. if so then we really need social/capitalism w/extensive goverment oversite because people this ignorant are dangerous to the american public. so remember, it's really not about buy american; it's about free mrkt cap which if thought out means the top is not able to be satisfied until no one has anything left but them, that's the logical progression. and as such no corp has any duty to society. look it up. it's sole pupose is to get as much as possible. what's sad is people still believe the hype and the thieves are the ones selling it to you...peace and coexist
americans wanted free trade now they have it and they whine.
reagan you were a genius you sold americans on your deregulation and free trade and trickle down theory.
the rich and wars for profits folks have never had it so good.
bye bye middle class and dont forget to vote for another free trader.
too late now middle class this is corp fascism and it has its hold on america for decades to come.
please note how the gov is taking care of the banks and corps. gov represents the money not the voters. wake up americans.
maybe instead of just working two jobs middle class you can work three jobs.
wal mart is hiring greeters in back woods mississippi.
reagan economics worked short term and americans love short term ask wall street.
long term we are heading for third world status but hang on to that hope.
Good insight! Now extend this line of thought and the mess made of the American economy is greater than a debacle. That five trillion mentioned, I bet, is for the most part from weapons!(arms dealing) The well- paid thinkers and their global capitalist pay masters never thought outside of the equation. Or maybe that was the point,have American wages equal Chinese wages. Since the average house, let alone hospital visit, costs over 200,000 dollars, we face deflation. To drive a rational thinker even more nuts our wise economic and political leaders now indicate that a lower cost of living will be terrible and needs to be avoided(bailed out). I guess they still need three houses and multiple vehicles. So the world that makes, makes the world that use to make, into a land of the brave and homeless. Oh and BUY AMERICAN slogans, I am old enough to remember that was Walmart's war cry as they destroyed small town American commerce. This country is doomed, as long as the majority misunderstand the "screw you" nature of capitalism and line up at lottery ticket counters and save for trips to a gambling den.
My understanding is that all these things are built with atoms that magically do not have a national origin. They just move around. When such movement is done efficiently, then we have such things like the American Automobile. When such movement gets inefficient, it just dies and is replaced by the Japanese Automobile that magically seems to be, for the most part, made and sourced on American soil. So, in my opinion, buying something Made in Somewhere is a knee jerk reaction to a short term switch to an efficient means of putting stuff together. Obviously, if we ship our junk containing lead to somewhere it seems logical that the lead we ship comes back to us in the form of another something we use and convert to junk one day. So, we do need understand such movement of atoms (good or junk) can be serious to our health.
Just buying American is a great challenge, however, fixing American products such as Televisions, VCR's, any electronic device, or computers. Could well save Americans much money and keep a piece of equipment going for much longer rather than putting it in another landfill. Americans must stop throwing everything away, when they can repair these products to give them many more years of pleasure and financial savings. Also, creating jobs across America for individuals to fix the broken items
Thanks for this post. I'm glad somebody out there is seeing and telling the truth.
I was referring to Freethinker's post when I expressed my gratitude.
Although I could easily pile on Reagan for numerous crimes and blunders, it was actially Clinton who signed NAFTA( and a Republican House that supported it.) One of the problems with this so-called "free trade pact" is that we are the only ones living up to it's terms and conditions. Now W wants to pass 2 more free trade pacts before he gets the 86. (CAFTA and FFTA).
We are the largest group of consumers on the planet(for good or bad), it's time to start using our leverage in the form of tariffs, tax-breaks, and manufacturing quota's.
In most countries, you can't sell a foreign product (besides commodities) without a certain percentage of "widgets" produced by that countries workforse. i/e-China, Japan etc.
If our "representitiives" on both side of the aisle didn't represent muti-national corporations before the needs of Americans, we might have a chance.
Sorry, I have to agree with Nicole. That sweater is unfortunately hideous, as are most choices on buyamerican.com. We can't expect people to start paying more and become completely tasteless all at once.
Did the author ever stop to think that "buy American" means to buy American made products when possible? It does not mean that you should always avoid all things, people, and places foreign/foreign made (Obama and McCain are both, technically, foreign made in one way or another). If she had spent half the time she spent trying to find a bra made in America as she had about the thesis of her article she would have gotten it.
Interesting situation that we also face in Canada. Only at the Farmer's market can you know where your food comes from, but the other "stuff" probably has Chinese origins, too.
On another note, shortly after the USA invaded Iraq, I was buying a pair of mittens and saw the label,"proudly made in USA" on them. I actually put them back and walked out with cold hands, because I could not stand to provide support to your country. I often felt that way once Bush was re-elected. As for cars, yeah, the American ones have always been worse (any car rental company will tell you, they service American cars every 5,000KM and Japanese ones every 8,000KM). With free trade, those with discretionary income will buy what is best, even if it costs more, and too often that has not been "Made in USA."
A culture that defines its very raison d'etre by endless accumulation of material possessions; by the unbounded acquisition of more money, money, money, money; by recklessly overconsuming and relentlessly hoarding limited resources, demonstrably declares to all the world that greed is good.
Are we not members of a culture that worships consumerism? Are the products of greed nothing more or less than the objects of our idolatry?
Are the pin-striped suits, fleet of cars, chauffeur, private jets, McMansions, distant hideaways, secret handshakes and exclusive clubs...... all signatures of success in a culture borne of the 'goodness' of greed?
Consider for a moment what greed has wrought.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php
Sorry BuyAmerican ~ I have to say I agree with Nicole. If you want to buy anything with style, you're screwed. I don't need knick-knacks for my home, or a new vacuum cleaner, or tools. I need things to wear. I need fashionable professional clothing, like well-tailored suits and dressy leather pumps ~ not work boots, jeans and ugly men's sweaters. I need lingerie.
Besides, considering how much "Made in the USA" stuff comes from sweatshops in the US territory of Saipan, I've given up on buying American and just worry about buying fair trade.
Growing up in a Republican houehold I used to be anti-union until I saw that everyones jobs were being shipped out. The article mentions we make jet engines here but not that we are losing in that market as well. Remember the government had to step in and have the tanker project rebid because BA (Europe)originally won the bid. A government backed consortium.
The bottom line is the playing field needs to be fair for everyone not just businesses. We've been fed this line of crap for so long, that it's business that needs a level playing field, people have forgotten about the workers.
You don't need to buy 100% American buy quality stuff from Europe or Canada or China (if any exists). Just don't buy the cheapest thing possible (which likely comes from east asia)
Yeah we are. The progressives in the United States go through the same thing you go through, you just don't hear about it either. We're working on it..
We're a very small generation that is similiar to progressive (ethical) thought in the EU in regards to capitalism. We have a very strong distaste for communism and what you are complaining about is just that and it is what has taken control of American minds for some time.
Uhm, local farms? ANY health food store? Buying in season? Farmers markets?
I mean, if you are not willing to make ANY changes in what you eat for a week...... well, then, no wonder you failed. But eating American food is EASY. Stop acting like it's a science project and just go to a store thats not located in a mall. EASY.
Our "Black Friday" shopping in Vermont. Started at the Shelbourne Museum gift shop supporting our local museum, a few purchases not all made in USA but good quality. Lunch in Monpelier, soup made from all locally grown produce. Small locally owned toy store purchases most USA made and a few other quality toys and games. Last shopping for children clothing at small locally owned store, purchased beautiful little dresses, sweaters and shirts all designed and made locally. No malls or big box stores. We came home and prepared our dinner using all produce from our CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) shares. The day was a peaceful outing with-in our own community. This can happen anywhere if you do a little research. It's fun and rewarding.
there is something that is definitely made in America, and that is mistrust between executives and their employees and of course they consumers they serve. we do not trust them to offer a fair product at a fair price than they trust we can sustain a reasonable life they can afford from managing a company. it seems that exploitation is the new shield against what is to come, an dialogue is no longer a arrow in the quiver of commerce. the nation has suffered a tremendous blow and perhaps we cannot survive it. the atmosphere is ripe with i hope you get what you deserve and i hope you go away.
i guess this spawned the dot.com industry and the wave of entrepreneurship as well as this new generation of workers who will change jobs 6-8 times in their lifetime or not work at all.
stop the madness or watch the great fall.
