ampahunter - you're not intruding. Thanks for the story.

Michigan is only a stone throw away from Canada, so we have a ton of workers coming here to work from Canada. My first preference would be USA made, but I would much rather buy Canadian made than China any day. Cabelas sells a Scent Lock jump suit liner deal that's made in Canada. The rest of the stuff is made overseas. I will by the Canadian made Scent Lock in a heart beat over China. (If only we could get Canada to handle their own garbage rather than shipping it all into MI, we'd be all set, that's another story though).

Here's a real good example: a guy down the road we buy hay from has been a machinist for 20 some years working in the same shop building the same main bearing fitted in jet engines. This part is machined to 1/100,000 of an inch tolerance. (To picture what this dimension means, split a piece of human hair in 4 and you have about the same dimension). The process is amazing. Guess where this guy is now? On the unemployment line looking for work. Why? Because the company was bought out by a bigger fish and the entire operation moved to Mexico. Think you didn't trust commercial air travel before? So, this guy loses his job and stops spending money localy placing strain on this guy over here that has to stop buying this product over there which makes xyz company lose business and forced out of business putting more people on the street. The suppliers that they bought from feel the burden now too and more people get laid off. Meanwhile, the Mexican's are drinking tequilla working on parts to fly us around the country, if we could afford it.

Bottom line, buy American if at all possible.