Friday, November 30, 2012
Made in America
I watched a program on Fox News the other day about Christmas shopping and the problem that we have in this country of buying foreign made products. The program was saying that if each American just bought one gift that was made in America that it would create 200,000 jobs in our country. The reporter on the street randomly stopped shoppers and asked them to check the items in their bags for American made items. Not one shopper had a locally made item. Out of all the gifts that I purchase during the holiday season, I don't think one gift that is made in America is too much to ask of our citizens. In a time of low economy this is good to promote. Our government needs to give tax deductions to those companies that hire locally rather than outsourcing their labor. Locally, cities give tax breaks to companies that build locally so this is not a new idea. Why do we boost the economy of a country such as China that doesn't even celebrate the holiday that we are purchasing gifts for? I was raised in a Union household so the notion to only buy American made products is not new. It's just becoming increasingly difficult to find items made in America whether it is a gift or an item that you need on a day to day basis. I challenge everyone that reads this to buy at least one item made in our country. Better yet, buy something locally made by an artist and support our local unique stores.
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November 30th 2012, Hill Country Politics wrote a touching post about Christmas shopping. The article was well presented and opened my eye to a reality I was completely unaware of this holiday season. The author writes in an unbias way and simply states if Americans bought their gifts from made in America shops then America would have 200,000 more jobs.
ReplyDeleteI know when I am Christmas, birthday, anniversary shopping I honestly do not look at the made in ... tag. The way the author of this post sheds light on the situation really makes you stop and think, hmm am I one of those shoppers. As Americans we sit here and complain that there are not enough jobs and unemployment rates are so high. Yet how many people are even aware that this could be solved by buying products made by our own people.
I would give the author a grade of A, I have never been so intrigued by a simple article. As I continue my Christmas shopping I will be aware of the products I am buying and the people I am buying from. This article will make me stop and think could i find this product at a local shop. Maybe I can even make the gift more personal. I mean thats what Christmas is about right not the gift but the love and though t that goes into it.
In this blog entry, the author talks about foreign produced goods that are sold in America, and how more of it should be produced domestically. The author talks about tax breaks that American businesses would get if they produced more goods, as well as the domestic job opportunities that would come as a result. I could not agree more. The problem with this is that it is simply unrealistic. Do not get me wrong, America is not in great shape right now, so to stimulate the economy by creating jobs would be help greatly. Sadly, this decision does not come down the people, but instead the corporations. If there were more regulations that allowed for more domestic creation, that would be awesome, but big corporations tend to have amazing legal teams and enormous resources, so this would be no easy task. By now, we should all know that a good amount of corporations lacks ethical values (2008 market crash), so if reducing their costs and maximizing profit means outsourcing production to a third world country, so be it. Outsourcing production is not limited to sweatshop positions, as there are positions in finance, engineering etc. that are outsourced overseas as well. Corporations are interested in making money and maintaining that flow of money. Even Apple, the adored tech company was under scrutiny for the poor conditions in their sweatshops. I know this is a very cynical way of looking at this topic, but I like to be realistic.
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