What ever happened to buy American???

[mike bell]

What happend to buy American?


All you people complaining about jobs being lost blaming Bush and all this crap. Then you go to WalMart and buy crap made in china! WalMart, years back was all "Made in the USA" and all that..........What happend??

Buy American and support Americans!!!!!!

[BT]

What happend?
Very simple. Money some my say unions. and qulity.

Some of our stuff is way way over priced for what you get.
And when you can get someting made some where else of higher qulity and less price people are going to buy it.
You may have the money to by American all the time and not count quilty but most people dont.

Look at the auto ind. back in the early 80's My dad would buy a USA truck get maybe 3 years and 100 thousand miles out of it.
He bought a ***ines truck in 82 we got over 12 years use out of it with no major repares.
and over 300 thousand miles on it. the guy that bought it for a farm truck is still driving it today. While dads 80 modle ford has been in the junk yard since 84.

[Bushman/hun]

all "Made in the USA" and all that..........What happend??

Sam walton died.
Us goverment bailed out lee & crysler & then they sold half that company to the germans.
Jeep makes jeeeps in china& chevys moved to mexico& canada.
France/england etc etc still after many decades hauls minerals out of this US state out of mines& land they own here IN America.

Without the unions( of the past)& inflation& the american standard of living- we could yes compeate directly with the chinese& koreans, mexicans with low wages too-But dont forget the heath care & other benifets also

[Bushman/hun]

It sucks cars& trucks& lifes things ever increasing in price [&o]& inflation etc.
Havent bought a new car or truck since 91[&o].

Just got rid of 3( sons ol car to()- so now down to 3 fords 78 full size bronco(190,000 on the odometer)& a 94 ranger 4X4 bought with 99,890 miles on it( now 140)& so far so good....fingers xed[:-] maybe only one of those3 was made in the USA tho..

But I try to buy american whenever possible -always have- but there sure is a lot of chinese crap out there now! thats for sure walmart& everywhere else- i thik there trying to take over the world.

With frances& germanys& everyone elses(algore,ge,jeep,toyota,sony) help maybe they can.[]

[kevin1]

I hate to pop anyone's bubble ,
but if you can find a product that's 100% American made then buy it , it will make a great curiosity piece someday . Our economy is increasingly moving away from manufacturing in favor of tech and service jobs because quite frankly you can't compete with a Third World country when it comes to labor costs . Sorry if that hurts , but truth that sux is no less true .

This is not a recent development folks , it's been happening for decades . I'm old enough to remember when "Made in ***an" meant cheap and shoddy , obviously they didn't care for that and got it together . Look at them now . How many Mexicans have you seen on construction sites lately ? Did you really think that they stole your job ? No , they just priced their services more competetively .

Consider this , you're an American union auto worker , you're probably making $20+ dollars per hour and have an enviable benefits package . In fact , 40% of what most of us pay for a new car is your benefit package . Who's your competition ? A Korean non-union auto worker who has zero benefits , makes $2 per hour , gets their steel for pennies on the dollar compared to here , and works with much newer equipment because he probably works in a nearly brand new factory .

This Korean's employer can ship a container ship full of cars halfway around the world and still price their product far lower than yours , is it any wonder that your employer now has plants in Mexico ? The only thing I wonder about is why your employer is still stupid enough to think that people will pay more for the product just because your overpaid butt assembled a collection of mostly foreign made parts on an assembly line here to placate the whiners who yell "Buy American!". Wake up , there is no such thing anymore , and there hasn't been for some time .

You can also thank your benevolent goobermint for creating trade agreements with the Third World to fatten the pockets of their rich buddies who put them in office . China has one of the world's worst records for human rights offenses , yet they enjoy "Most favored Nation" trade status ? I guess money does talk ...

Whether you agree with what I've said or not , all you have to do is look around you or just read labels . "Made in America" these days just means "too expensive" . My underwear used to be made 200 miles from my home , now it's made in the Dominican Republic . Guess what ? It's cheaper than it was a year ago . Welcome to capitalism , become more competetive or become self employed , those are the choices before you .

[virginiaJim]

Need to pull out of Nafta. It did nothing because all the jobs that went to mexico in the early 90's then pulled out and went to China. I buy american when I can but its getting harder to find. Tools are marked made in america but in truth they are not American companies anymore. The Germans and even China have invested into them where they hold majiority ownership. Its sad.

[oldelkhunter]

Reality is Sam Walton died and his kids want more money and the heck with American made goods. They are too expensive . Ole Sam must be rolling in his grave.

You can also thank your benevolent goobermint for creating trade agreements with the Third World to fatten the pockets of their rich buddies who put them in office . China has one of the world's worst records for human rights offenses , yet they enjoy "Most favored Nation" trade status ? I guess money does talk ...

And we can thank our benevolent government both Clinton and Bush for not enforcing trade agreements they pass.

[Charlie P]

One of the reasons I bought a Summit instead of an Ameristep.

Buying American is getting harder and harder because of agreements like NAFTA.

[Fieldmouse]

Over regulation by our goverment is killing jobs plain and simple. When you are forced to pay all the extras just to hire someone why wouldn't jobs go overseas? I recommend for your reading, books by Walter E. Williams. He goes through the economics of jobs and business. He puts it in simple words.

Also the slogan buy American was undermind by the very people who came up with it. They wanted you to buy American but bought their equipment to make their product overseas. Go figure.

[North Texan]

For some reason, everyone blames NAFTA. In a normal year, the U.S. economy will generate 2.4 million jobs. Only about 35,000 jobs each year are jeapordized because of Mexico. Canada, which the U.S. was already trading with, jeapordizes almost twice that many annually. That doesn't account the jobs that are created by NAFTA because of trade. One of the diesel engine makers, I believe it was Cummins, and some other auto makers moved back to the U.S. after NAFTA was put into effect. Mexico had tariffs that limited imports, so they had been forced to set up a facility there. They closed the facility and moved that production back to the U.S. Why? Because low labor costs are associated with low productivity and low education levels. The American worker is the most productive worker in the world. That productivity more than offset the higher worker compensation. Trade isn't bad, but there are winners and losers. Politicians, especially those out of power, just seem to focus more on the losers.

Take me for example. I raise wheat. 40% of all wheat grown in the U.S. is exported. Agriculture is one of the few sectors in the U.S. that is a net exporter. Trade from agriculture was estimated at $60 billion in 1996. The agricultural trade sector has also generated 1.4 million jobs. All this is done with other countries averaging tariffs at around 60-70%, trying to protect their own ag markets.

Remember that an economy has two parts: the producer and the consumer. Trade is designed to help the consumer, not the producer. Trade forces countries to focus their production on those products that they can produce most efficiently. The consumer benefits because they are able to consume more goods and services at the same price levels.