Posted on 02/08/2005 9:08:32 AM PST by Willie Green
"I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make, be the difference of price what it may."
--Thomas Jefferson to B. S. Barton, 1815. ME 19:223
I buy American whenever I can. And I have found that although I may spend a little more the increase in quality more then makes up for it.
If one is on a budget, you have two choices- buy foreign or go to ebay and buy used, but American.
Neither one, thuogh, helps American workers.
I also buy American - all my cars, all my clothing, all my shoes. It takes some effort to find them but they are there. Even towels can be found Made in USA. What I find interesting are union members who drive foreign made cars, wear chinese made shoes, etc - they are killing their own jobs!
Like I said the initial cost is more the the quality and the fact that if properly cared for the American goods last so much longer it is in my experience actually cheaper in the long run to buy American.
The $600 billion in trade deficit is a comprehensively irrelevant statistic unless adjusted for inflation and size of the economy.
If someone can post statistics showing how our trade deficit has changed in such realistic terms over the last 20 - 30 years, I'd be very interested.
What a pant load. I don't accept the premise that optimizing my own self interest in consumer choice, is harmful to the US. Treason talk marks the author as a nut job.
/vested interest
(Support your local foreign bank)
Where they made in Mexico or Canada?
The COMPANY and its PROFITS are most important. It would be nice if the actual production were American, but more important is where the money goes to regenerate - and possibly produce more jobs. Next most important is who has the intellectual property. If we lose DESIGNERS, of whatever stripe, we are doomed to be slaves.
Frankly, the production portion is lowest on the list. Again, it would be nice, but it's gravy. (It would primarily be nice because it would mean we are completely self-sufficient in wartime.)
Which would you rather - Toyotas built in Tennessee or Fords built in Germany?
(Which, BTW, is an example of how it cuts both ways.)
You nailed it (cue the hammer/nail picture)
Where were you able to find a cordless drill made in America?
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
--Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119
I always try to buy American.
Milwakee (SP?) tools.
Let's see, should I give my money to the Chicoms or to the unions? Tough choice.
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
~Abraham Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.
The Wealth of Nations, Book IV Chapter II Adam Smith
How much money do American union workers get when you buy a used drill off of ebay?
Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries
of such Goods as can be produced at Home
"There seem, however, to be two cases in which it will generally be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the encouragement of domestic industry...
- The first is, when some particular sort of industry is necessary for the defence of the country....
- The second case, in which it will generally be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the encouragement of domestic industry is, when some tax is imposed at home upon the produce of the latter. In this case, it seems reasonable that an equal tax should be imposed upon the like produce of the former....
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