Buy American if you can...

[PacoPollo]

My pilots shirts are made in Honduras.

 

[belchfire]

My pilots shirts are made in Honduras.

Yeah, I bet they are, but I'm not talking about K-mart pocket tees..

Boohahahahahaha!

 

[Guitar rocker]

My pilots shirts are made in Honduras.

Those are the ones with that big collars. Something cheap has to look good on you.

 

[A Squared]

I keep hearing that from guys who try to justify their foreign cars. (My Honda is made in the US, your Taurus is made in Canada, etc,)

The Mercedes in yer driveway may be built in Alabama, but the money goes to Krautland.

No, not really. I was just adding some info that adds some considerable grey to the folks that live in a black and white world where "american" is good and "foreign" is bad. You have to admit the issue becosmes much greyer when you consider where the cars are really made and who is paid to manufacture and assemble them and what proportion of the jobs created by the producion of that car are here vs. overseas.

At any rate, I don't *ever* feel the need to justify owning a Toyota Pickup truck vis an "american made" one. For whatever reasons, I perceive the Toyota to be a much better value for my vehicle dollar. If you don't like that (and I say *you* in a general sense, not you personally) then do something that will change my perception of what is a better value in my esitimation. Don't just tell me to "buy american" especially when "american" has a very tenuous claim to really being american.

Perhaps, instead of a Toyota P/U I should buy a Dodge Dakota? But wait, isn't Dodge owened by Germans now? (I ask because I haven't kept up with the ownership of Chrysler, but I seem to recall it was purchased by Daimler (sp?) )

So If I but an "american" dodge pickup that is mostly assembled overseas from mostly foreign manufactured parts, by a German company, am I really "buying American" And, how is that Dodge, more american that a honda built in the us, from a larger percentage of US manufactured parts, using a greater percentage of US labor?

I know that you understand the concept of best value for your money, as you mentioned it in your first post. That's what I beleive I'm getting from my Toyota, based on my valuse. You may beleive the same about your american cars, based on your values, and neither of us is wrong. But the idea of "buy American" just because you should buy american becomes less and less valid as manufacureing is sent overseas.

 

[McNugget]

If the guy making my McNugget earns a "living wage" and has full health benefits provided for him, what will the price of the McNugget be?

Oh, 'bout $50K for first-year FO but I'm hoping for a relatively fast upgrade.

 

[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?