Buy American if you can...

[tomcat]

Dear Dr. Z,
How much of my Dodge pickup is actually American?

j/k-please don't make another one of those annoying commercials

 

[V-1]

Once during a visit to India, I read a story in a local paper about a new call center that was opening in Bangalore. There were about 500 positions for night customer service reps.

There were approximately 6000 applicants, with college degrees, in line for those 500 jobs.

Those jobs paid $400/mo. U.S., in a country where the average annual salary is the equivalent of $1000 u.s.

How do we compete with that?

Globalization is going to level the economic playing field somewhat, but it won't be only the poor who are elevated. Those of us who live in the wealthies countries (most of us, at least) will likely see our standard of living decrease somewhat over time.

For the last few years, I've struggled with how to prepare for the negative effects of globalization. The best answer I can come up with is to invest in companies who know how to take advantage of globalization. Somehow we've got to get out in front of this wave before it drowns us.

Any thoughts? What a silly question to ask here!

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

I'll buy American when you hire American.

CE

 

[PacoPollo]

I fly American Airlines sometimes.

 

[hydroflyer]

An American company outsources its jobs to foreign countries, reducing available jobs for U.S. workers. A foreign company outsources its jobs to the U.S. providing opportunities for U.S. workers. Which is better for our economy, the money that comes to the U.S. company or the money that goes to a foreign company that provides U.S. jobs? Is one really better than the other?

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

If buying a Mercedes sends money to the Germans, then so does buying a Chrysler, because they're owned by the Germans.

I think Cramer, from the famous MSNBC show said it best:
"Toyota is the best American auto manufacturing company."

Trying to buy/define an American car these days is very difficult. One of my wife's acquaintences tried to do that, so she bought a Chevy. She didn't know it was built in Korea and shipped here. When my wife told her that she got really mad, because she purposely wanted to by an "American" car.

cliff
YIP

 

[ReverseSensing]

I buy at Walmart. Thats an American company!

Hehehe. Wal-Mart and China. What a cozy relationship that is. Wal-Mart is the best thing that's happened to China since Chiang Kai-Shek.

Wal-Mart's policy of putting the serious squeeze on US manufacturers has resulted in most of that manufacturing moving off-shore, a great deal of it to China. Bottom line: if you manufacture something and hope to sell it to Wal-Mart, you better be making it off-shore, because that's the only way you'll have a low enough price to satisfy the Wal-Mart patriots.

Nowadays, the US exports scrap metal, recycled paper, raw timber (logs), and jobs to China. China imports billions of dollars of shiny, new, consumer products to the US. That's one legacy of Bill Clinton (besides for cigar innuendoes and blue dress jokes) I could have lived without.

 

[V-1]

Bill Clinton worked for Wal-Mart?

 

[BenderGonzales]

I'm sure that nothing at Target, BestBuy, Costco, K-Mart, etc is made overseas.

Where do you shop?

 

[ReverseSensing]

Bill Clinton worked for Wal-Mart?

It's complicated, but yes. He did pretty well by China, too.

I'm sure that nothing at Target, BestBuy, Costco, K-Mart, etc is made overseas.

I'm sure you're wrong. Oh...I get it, you were being sarcastic.

Where do you shop?

I don't really have a favorite -- I spread my considerable Regional FO wealth around quite a bit.

Look, no one's hands are clean on this issue, but Wal-Mart is one of the largest companies in the world and they are blatantly "cost" oriented and drive a ton of consumption. They have changed the relationship between manufacturers and retailers from a "push" system to a "pull" system, and in the process, have had an astonishing impact on US manufacturing of consumer goods. No other consumer goods retailer has ever single-handedly had this kind of impact. The up-shot of this impact has been to drive manufacturing off-shore.

Lots of retailers sell imported consumer goods. Historically, no other ones have so effectively tipped the scales toward the necessity for US companies to manufacture off-shore as Wal-Mart by their incessant focus on low costs.

I will grant you that only the very wealthy can entirely avoid Chinese and other foreign products. My only point is that aside from obviously selling Chinese made products, Wal-Mart has, and continues to actually drive US manufacturing to China more than any other retailer in history.

Wal-Mart's an amazing American success story. But at what cost to the US manufacturing base?