Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweet Zness
Actually only a portion of their industry is made in America. You miss the point.
I don't mind the "buy american" people at all. Its just odd that 95 percent of what they buy and own is made over sea's. That most people who claim "buy american" usually are the same people looking to save a dime on anything else. Where are their dining sets made? Clothing? Kitchen appliances? HDTV's.
Again I don't mind the, buy American, crowd. I just is mind boggling those who lecture buy American, all while wearing shoes from Asia, wearing clothes made in Brazil or indonesia, watch their Korean made TV's, play their japanese made playstations and drink their imported coffee's.
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Especially when there are places that make things like furniture here, if you are lazy and just go to "big box stores", you won't find them, but there are plenty of quality things out there that can be had that are "made in america". Of course as you say, most of these people are the "do as I say, not as I do" type, and they do not show anywhere enough consistancy with their ideas to be telling anyone else to "buy american". I honestly liked the fact that my last japanese car was built in Japan and shipped here. That's what it's supposed to be, it's a big part of why I bought it. It isn't to say that I think American cars are bad (previous one was American, in addition to current), but there wasn't anything that American auto makers made that was even comparable to my last car, and I wanted it "done right" in that sense.
Here's my biggest problem with the "buy American" crowd, it breeds stagnation and kills competition, which ultimately causes the business to collapse. When you "don't buy" with any loyalty, but truely seek out the best product, it forces the other manufacturers to "up their game". In any business, the only real constant is change. You can never sit on your hands and just "churn out" thousands of widgets endlessly. God bless the unions, I AM a supporter of them, but the idea that someone can do the above job till they retire may not be realistic. A business must come up with NEW products and processes, continually seek out ways to be more efficient, find new markets to compete in and offer products in, provide new or different services, and so on. When they stagnate, it's what ultimately leads to a collapse, as someone with a better idea, process or product will undercut them. If this causes people to not "buy American", then it is something for American businesses and politicians to solve, with trade agreements and so on. The playing field of the entire WORLD is evening out right now. It is lopsided in many cases, yet there are manufacturers that are learning that it's cheaper to make things over here rather than ship them all over the world just for the purpose of assembly/fabrication, especially with rising fuel costs. Quality of life improving in China and other places raising costs, and so on. Ironically, it's usually the "Buy American" crowd that pretends to be in favor of capitalism and free markets, but they probably undercut their own country and businesses by sticking so hard to that ideal, to the point in some cases where the business collapses (this idea carried out by consumer groups, politicians trying to "protect" businesses, etc). In some cases, businesses have to die, it's a natural part of the cycle and not everyone can make it. There needs to be some sort of drive to improve and get better, stubborn loyalty isn't going to push them to do so. We are finally at a time IMO where we see US Automakers taking necessary steps to be competative. They had to be beat into submission to do so. It's lame though to knock someone elses decision to buy a car that is competative in it's segment.