Buy American? Hell yes!

Was it the 1070's when we had the last "Buy American" fad? Wasn't that when American automobiles were total crap heaps and the Japanese were making superior vehicles for a fair price? Back then I struggled with the concept of "Buy American" because Americans were building crap. Maybe I was too immature or selfish to understand the economic ramifications of my spending our dollars for Japanese goods, but I thought, "Hey, if you build crap, don't expect me to come running to buy it." Then I bought a little yellow Datsun 280Z. It rusted out in about a year. But I digress.

Then things changed. US automobile manufacturers stepped up, at least with respect to quality - not necessarily innovation. Today I have an American automobile manufacturer's vehicle. Not that it means much of it is made in the U.S., or that the steel is U.S. steel is from the U.S, but the brand name is American, anyway - and it's from the U.S. manufacturer that doesn't want any bailout money. Uh, never mind about this part.

Fast forward to today. I don't know if I have changed, or if the conditions are different. Today I'm a flag waving "Buy American" fan. That is, "Buy American" if you can find something still made in America by an American.

I'm so freaking sick of hearing about jobs shipped overseas I could puke. And it's not just manufacturing anymore. I'm also sick of calling for service and getting someone that is in India, just like Teri, who posted about this a while back.

If we're not a manufacturing economy, and we're not a service economy, what the fuck are we? Oh yeah, a fucked up economy, that's right. That's it.

I don't have anything against people from India, Mexico, or China. It's just that I am tired of my friends losing their jobs, and me having to cope with well meaning people taking phone calls like robots but not actually being able to make decisions or solve problems for me.

How did this happen? It happened because of greed and our obsession of acquisition of "stuff" in this country.

Wealthy investors in this country worship the almighty quarterly income statement, which causes companies to layoff their higher paid American workers and ship the jobs overseas so that they don't get punished on Wall Street. Companies close American manufacturing sites and ship production to China so costs are driven down, right along with the American middle class, who lose jobs.

Meanwhile, instead of getting mad that our jobs are leaving, we Americans buy, buy, buy the cheaper goods that come from China... I'm guilty, and I'll bet most of us are guilty, of bad consumption habits.

We, fellow Americans, are filling our homes and our trash cans with products that make the world's rich people richer, we exploit the poor overseas that are willing to work for little to nothing, and we cause the American middle class to vanish. We all need to stop buying cheap foreign made "stuff" if we can find American made products instead.

What about the government? What should the United States do when our trade partners object to the "Buy American" clauses in the U.S. Economic Stimulus Package?

Is it unfair to expect that our tax dollars, spent to put U.S. citizens to work and improve U.S. infrastructure be spent on U.S. products, like steel, as long as the steel is priced fairly (which is stated in the policy in question)? Our trade partners say it's unfair.

I disagree. I think it is perfectly fair to put American citizens to work with American tax dollars to build American infrastructure with American produced goods.

Why do Canada and Europe (or any other country, for that matter) think they should have first (or any) dibs on U.S. tax dollars being spent to stimulate the U.S. economy?

What am I missing? What is the reciprocate that I don't understand?