Do you buy American-made products?

[Beach girl]

Ah. I was seriously thinking about putting a nice, but small, fountain in a somewhat sheltered area near our pool, just as a pleasant accent. But it's not as sheltered as even a screened porch would be; it's just under the stairs coming down from the upper level. So guess your fountains wouldn't work.

 

[VacationGuy234]

Basically I agree with you here, on a macro scale, but considering the tough times people are having, I really want to put my money into local businesses, as far as possible.

I split my time between the Outer Banks of No. Carolina and up in northern Virgina. Folks in the OBX are still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Irene in late August. I did as much of my Christmas shopping as possible down there, buying yarn (of course!), and books and locally-made candy and nuts and items from the "recycled" store where they make neat items out of recycled fabrics. Bought myself a beautiful woven scarf, and a couple other things.

In total, that was a drop in the bucket of what might be needed, but at least my few hundred dollars are circulating in a local economy that desperately needs a boost.

You can help out a local economy short term by investing in it and I do think that is a good thing, but the structural problems of natural disaster need to be fixed with funding(there's no way around it). If you look at New Orleans, they still have not come back from the hurricane as a whole.

On a good note, we are seeing a need for more specialty work in the U.S. such as welders and other tradesmen, these job are not totally exported. It's because people think those jobs are no longer needed that we have run out of stock. This whole perception of moving totally to a service industry is not a reality, but with all the talk you would believe it.

 

[Abby Nicole]

I saw the news report about buying American. I found it to be misleading. Even if you can create the jobs you have to sustain the buying power, otherwise, those workers will eventually be laid off.

The fact of the matter is, the world is better off with a global economy. The problem is, the division of wealth within countries not the global economy itself. If Mexico paid it's workers better they could buy American products, but they can't at the current wages.

Eventually, as those countries do pay workers more there will be more people to buy American products.

True, the world is better off with a global economy, but not our country. As third world countries are increasing their economic clout, ours is decreasing. Global labor arbitrage will be a bitter pill for us Americans to swallow. I think if we make a conscientious effort to buy American, we can at least slow down the rate of our economic descent.

 

[Beach girl]

I went to the fabric store today to buy a good pair of scissors. Almost every pair I picked up were "made in China." Finally I found a company where the scissors, according to the package, were "Made in the USA or Italy."

So I bought those, and found out when I opened the package and saw the stamp on the scissors, that they were made in Italy.

OK. I'd rather buy from Italy than China, I guess. And these were clearly of higher quality (and price) than the "made in China" options.

But I'd really like to be able to buy a product made in the U.S. if at all possible. It is striking how little we manufacture of normal, everyday, consumer goods anymore.

 

[posts from hell]

I went to the fabric store today to buy a good pair of scissors. Almost every pair I picked up were "made in China." Finally I found a company where the scissors, according to the package, were "Made in the USA or Italy."

So I bought those, and found out when I opened the package and saw the stamp on the scissors, that they were made in Italy.

OK. I'd rather buy from Italy than China, I guess. And these were clearly of higher quality (and price) than the "made in China" options.

But I'd really like to be able to buy a product made in the U.S. if at all possible. It is striking how little we manufacture of normal, everyday, consumer goods anymore.

Rubbermaid containers are made in the USA. I think that was the only thing in Walmart that was USA made, other than some of the food.

 

[Royale]

I went shopping for a few shirts recently in a Mom and Pop store and couldn't find a single shirt made in the USA. This bothers me.

80-90 percent of the goods that the retail stores especially Walmart are made in China. That is why it is hard to find goods which are made in USA or Canada.

 

[diehardbiker]

Really it is about money. I personally would want to buy American, or locals. However it depends on the cost. For example if I need something for short time or temporary, I wouldn't buy at premium. Like for example at Harbor Freight near my home, a hammer cost 5 bucks there while at Home depot, if it is American made, it would cost 25 dollars. Why pay 5 times more?

At least both of my vehicles are American made.