The resurgence of 'pocketbook patriotism'

It confounds me at how blissfully ignorant we Americans can be. We complain about Hondas and Toyotas made in the USA and offer up buying GMs, Fords and Dodges as a substitute where the majority of their parts are created in Mexico, Korea or other foreign countries. Simple fact is that Honda is probably 'more' American than your Ford Fusion or Chevy Malibu – certainly more American than Pontiac's new G-8 which is built in Australia, by Australians with Australian parts.

We complain about free trade yet our society is so greedy for goods and petroleum. We are fine limiting the imports we can do without for today but the moment we need them well shop anywhere. I love the article mentioning the TV going kaput. Well sorry honey you do have a decision – if you cannot buy an American TV – go without – you do not NEED a TV. Oh but wait…this is about what we Americans WANT. I agree that we should limit trade and it works both ways so from now on since other countries only need to purchase 100K gallons of our…say Budweiser Beer they'll only sell us 100K gallons of fuel oil. That is fair right? Oh sorry I forgot…because we Americans feel we have the right to drive around 10 MPG SUVs and Pick-Ups and want to consume 65 percent of the worlds oil that argument does not apply here.

In addition, who was it that mentioned an "Unionized" grocery store? Give me a break – I suppose the baggers recently went on strike because they felt $75 per hour was too little to bag groceries.

Face it fellow Americans…we have made our bed…it is now time for us to lie in it. Sam Walton may have had the idea to sell only American goods but we, the American consumer voted with our wallets and demanded the cheapest possible price at all costs. We asked for it – we got it – we have no one to blame but ourselves for our greed, arrogance and foolishness.

Just watch the gas prices go down just before the Nov. election. It is time for term limits; the current Congress is incompetent.

Also, General Pretraeous talks about reducing troop levels in Sept. Another election tactic.

I bought a Buick, and I find out that it was mostly made in Mexico and Canada. So my "American Car" is actually an import!! Maybe I should have bought a Toyota, which is now made in the U.S. and sold to the American market. American workers make Toyota in the American heartland and I believe these are relatively good paying jobs, comparable to American auto maker wages. For those people concerned about Toyota's profits going overseas, be aware that Toyota etc. is a public traded company and if you have any type of pension plan, there is a good chance you own Toyota etc. If you like these so called Japanese car companies, you can own them as a small investor by buying Toyota etc. stock. . I would rather buy a Toyota made in U.S. by American workers than a Buick made by outsourcing to foreign nations.

BOTTOM LINE....WE HAVE TO STOP INTERACTING OUR PRODUCTS WITH CHINA AND OTHER COUNTRIES AND START MAKING AND DEPENDING ON OURSELVES!!!!!!!

Glad to see that finally Americans experience the patriotic feeling of buying a product make on their own. I don't want to talk about politics or whatever globalization economy.

I just want to remind you all that basically, when foreign countries doing such patriotic buys in the past decades, Americans are among the countries who cried unjustice, demanding them to open their market, mocking the patriotic idea of "holding your country's produce as better or even the best compare to other country's" as stupid/barbaric/backward/ or even unfit to be hold in a modern era. And etc etc. Your grandparents, parents, or maybe you yourself if you're a baby-boomer, protesting such notion, probably some thinks such idea is hillariusly 'funny'. This is another adding factor why other countries find Americans annoying until now. Because they seemed to ridiculed the patriotism these countries practiced. Ofcourse, easy for you to protest when you don't experience the weak currency, the high unemployment rate, the low education level...and many more problems just like what you face at this moment, probably even worse worse and worse triple times than what you face at this moment.

Take Japan in their wake after WWII as example. They were so proud of their own nation and consider products made in Japan are the greatest, the best, and they consider other products as second class. As the result, they tend to try so hard to buy their own country's products, just like what you're trying to do now.

I hope that now America's dollar is a little bit weaker, and that unemployment rate is becoming serious enough to be noticed...now Americans can put themselves in other countries' shoes. What you feel, is what other countries had already felt decades before, when your dollar is so strong and mighty that you basically can pamper yourself with lavish items and throw them easily when they're a bit broken.

Now that you already feel how it is to be patriotic about your own country's production, I hope there will be a better understanding and no nose-turned up when a foreigner boast about his/her proud buying of their own country's product. You can feel it too right? The proud feeling of being able to contribute something to your own country? I believe you can. Whatever happiness you feel is what these foreigners felt too. Now that's enough to finally make Americans more "one of us too" in the eyes of others.
Good day to all of us.

Curious how can a person join this class-action lawsuit? We lost our cat at the beginning of the poisoning deaths. He was Garfield, a 2 yr old orange marmalade cat. He acted very strange and just laid by the water bowl. Until we came back after church and he had crawled to the family room and died. He never went outside and the other 3 cats are just fine. I'm not sure why it just happened to him. But it was extremely sad to see him suffer for a couple of days over the weekend. Thanks for your input.

The government keep saying the unemployment rate is rather low, they do not tell you even though people who wance worked at manufacturing facilities that earned a decent salaries are now working in the lower pay service/retail sector. So because the unemployment is low does not mean people are as wealthy as they were, the government does not want to reveal this information, yet what they cannot hide nor will tell the truth about, the I believe both the housing market (bankruptcies and foreclosures) and the slowing economy is the outcome of outsourcing. People no longer can refinance their houses to pay off debt created with purchasing items with credit, utilizing credit because people do not have money to pay for them. After years of loss of income and creating large credit debt in order to live as they were when they had jobs that paid decent is not all showing up.

It is bad when a Starbucks coffee shop in Kalamazoo, MI was accepting application that they receive over 200 applications.

Speaking of Starbucks, they had a recall about a month ago on their plastic coffee mugs, that when hot coffee pour into cup, it causes the handle to detach, of coarse it is Made in China. The money they saved by purchasing them from China they end up spending on all those recalled mugs, they should have bought ones Made in U.S.A.

The Sunbean story, is so true, I looked a Sunbean products a lot of them are made in China as well, it is very sad, they take our jobs yet expect of to continue to buy from them. The radio flyer wagons is another story of a Chicago company close up and went to China, they had a recall last year for lead paint on their plastic wagons, serves them right, yet no lesson learned, still made in China.

Speaking of lead paint, I seen the latest recalls and products from both India and Taiwan contained lead paint.

I cannot believe it is cheaper to send products around the world of how high Diesel is, with ships that have a high pollution output, I thought wal-Mart is going green yet their ships are going black with high tar diesel fuel burning.

PATRIOTISM, where has it gone!!!! Back in the 1980s or 1970s, Coca-Cola had shirts made in Taiwan, and the American textile manufactures threw out their Coca-Cola vending machines. Now the very textile manufactures most likely have sold out country out now, by outsourcing. Most companies have become a distributor of their brand names, they close up textile factories here and just subcontract it to a company in a foreign country. They no longer have to worry about paying factory worker and benefits, they just purchase an item from a third party with very little over head and sit back and increase there profits and earn millions more a year in net income. That is millions of dollars out of the hands of the American families, and the CEO gets million dollars bonus for saving the company millions of dollars, what an accomplishment. It is not about proving wealth to the American families anymore, it is all about greed. They say if they do not outsourced they will go out of business, what a lie. A company would say they earned 23.7 billion dollars last year profits and they say they are going to send their production to China and save 40 million dollars a year, these numbers may be fictional yet are close to some articles that I read with this very act, like Avon. If you are earning 23.7 billion dollars a year why do you need to earn 40 million more, and layoff hundreds if not thousands of people for this gain, thus all you can say is GREED!!!!!!

Many factories in China works their employees, like disney toys, over 100 hours a weak without overtime. One worker goes to work 0700 and leaves their job each day at 2330 hours, about a 16 hour work day, the Chinease worker try to sue Disney over it and Disney said they knew nothing about this, yea right, they are glad that they do not have to pay over time, that is why they manufacture in China, because they would not get away with it hear, that is just more profits to be made by Disney. This worker receives about 20 cents an hour. I wander of how big of a House(s) does the CEO of Disnery toys have, at the expense of both the American and Chinease workers.

Propaganda, I was viewing the documentary about Wal-Mart and a company that makes dolls said they make the dolls in China and they can sell it at Wal-Mart for less than twenty dollars, yet if they made it in the U.S.A. it woul coast near $80, well what he did not state then he placed the same 600% markup on the profuct if it was made in U.S.A. as they utilize on the Chinease made doll, deceiving people to believe, by making it in China is not a bad thing. The bad this is that by making it in China they place about a 600% markup and bask in the profits were it was American made they could not place that high of a merk up.

Did Mattel and other companies knew about the lead paint, I think they did, it is just they got caught and denied it.

I have read of a company moved from one part of China to another in order to find cheaper labor, how far is these CEOs will go to save a buck, when they already getting cheap labor yet they want to find even cheaper, Greed will do anything no matter of how insensible a decision is.

I furthermore read an article were the Chinease factory workers are fearing that their factories along the coast to move more inland were the labor is even cheaper. Those CEOs are chasing the most inexpensive labor no matter of the cost of relocation, how stupid!!!!!!!!!!! They already paying their worker between 15 to 20 cents an hour how much less of a wage they want to pay. Even there has been talk that due to the inflation of China companies are looking to relocate to Vietnam for lower cost labor, it is becoming a rat race on saving pennies. So the portfolio of these corporations will show an increase in revenues at people expense. They already saving about 19 dollars an our by not making it hear and paying a person 20 cents an hour and they are trying to reduce the cost of finding wages lee than that, what shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Wal-Mart is so glad to sell these items and ignorant people are supporting Wal-Mart by purchasing these items, what cost about $2.00 to make in China, Wal-Mart will sell it for $12.00 and say they are saving American money, if people knew the real cost of manufacture compared to the so called low pries at Wal-Mart, they would be mad. Wal-Mart is fattening their pockets while claiming they are saving us money. Wal-Mart says many of their costumers do not even have a checking account, they would have one if they did not cause their goods jobs to go to China.

For quite some years I shop very consciously for food, clothing, the garden and my dogs. I make almost everything from scratch, my bread, yogurt, jams, veggies and so on. I pretend to think that only then I know what I am eating because I read the labels of the commercial made food very carefully. When I read that most of the milk products are stretched and "improved" with starch and gums to provide the creamy ness of the natural product I got pretty disgusted. The companies sell inferior quality for a lot of money and tell consumers it is better for you. People are brainwashed by being coached into buying 'low fat food' which many times has the same amount of calories just in this case from starch etc. I could go on and on with this..so I decided to buy locally which is not so easy when you live in a small community, want to save gas and support American products.
The dogs get mostly homemade food and are in excellent health, the garden thrives with organic methods and my own compost which I make from all the stuff which normally goes to the dump. We live in a closed environment, what is there and gets used will be recycled and used again, just think of the water which doesn't grow but is here for thousands and millions of years, our waste water will become wonderful well water, does everybody think about this?
I also hate to buy stuff which is made in sweat shops by poor exploited people so that we in the western world can have it all, I do not buy at Wal Mart, prefer to shop at employee own shops and try in general to have little impact on my world. Lets hope that more and more people wake up and take the responsibility for them self and our poorold globe

It appears that in the quest to be the "cheapest" we have all but put all of our money in China at this time. Pretty soon the inflation over there will take us to new lands for the "cheapest". Even our credit card call centers are turning more and more to places like India, Ireland, Canada, and Pakistan. We buy, buy, buy, then when we run out of money, we borrow more with credit cards or the old home equity loans.

With respect to the borrowing, it's all over but the crying. If we have to use our credit to buy gas, then we are on the cash standard for most all else, this country is soon going to be in a huge recession with hyper inflation, as the uncontrolled price of oil goes ever higher. Only those who don't owe their souls to creditors are going to be okay during this. (Like me) The Fed is saying no more interest rate cuts, so that imaginary hype is gone too. I expect before the end of the year for interest rates to go up a bit to quell the inflation.

Good luck you all. It's every person for themselves. If you are lucky, you won't loose your job.

On Wal-Mart, remember the signs they used to have in the stores telling you what products we made in the US and if you bought that item how many US jobs you were supporting? They don't have those signs anymore because they don't buy from US manufacturing plants anymore.

I find it hilarious that Ms. Toncheff, the centerpiece of the "Buy American" slideshow, seems to have very few locally made *recent* items. It's all well and good to buy vintage depresssion-era dishware, but most people nowadays don't have the time to spend their days on eBay, nor can they afford these antiques.

With the credit crunch, oil prises rising and food prices driving up inflation, it'll be a hard sell to ask people to pay more money for goods just because they're made locally, especially since the quality is often lacking.

North Americans brought this on themselves. People ended up buying Japanese electronics, why? Maybe because they could get better quality units for cheaper by getting a Sony or a Sanyo. Then they celebrated the cult of disposability, of the shiny and new, preferring to get a new coffeemaker instead of repairing the old, allowing clothes retailers to drag them into the ever-faster fashion cycles, and abandonning the old-fashioned idea of buying a quality product and maintaining it to last a long time.

People keep asking me why I stick to my 9-year-old car and why I don't change my TV to a new flat screen. That's because the TV is still working well, and so is my car. And when I get flak for driving "an import", I simply point out 2 things: that my Honda was made less than an hour from my house in Toronto, with more parts made in North America than the Ford Mustang, and that you see a lot more 10-year old Hondas on the road than 10-year old Pontiacs.

Buying North American just for the sake of it doesn't give companies any incentive to make a better product, or streamline their practices to make production more affordable. If you build it decently for a decent price, we will buy it. Until then, consumers will keep sending their money to Asia.

I have to say with gas prices the way they are and food shooting through the roof it isnt about buying american it is about the cheapest price i can get. I will use the "savings" to buy more high priced gas. And i will be buying a totyota prius soon( probably next month) since this country never got the message sooner about hybrids till it was too late. We did have an all electric car (EV1) that was on the drawing board and was well received by consumers in California but the Auto industry nixed citing lack of enthusiasm but with over 250,000 people wanting it back in 2000 how could that be anything but? i will buy american when it is cheaper but till then i will buy as economically as possible from whatever store sells it for less no matter what country it is from.

If we want to keep the economy growing, we need to continue to spend as we normally would. Yeah, we'll stop shopping at Gap, but our teenage kids are going to be out of jobs. In Massachusetts, minimum wage is 8.00 an hour. Lots of our local businesses are going out of business and reducing the amount of jobs because people refuse to pay the price of locally manufactured goods. Support the United States by spending your stimulus checks and stop whining about imported goods.

My friend who made horse tack for 30 years just lost his business to overseas, a real shame. I shop on~ made in America.com and a few other sites like it ,harder to purchase things but worth the trouble. We all have to try harder
KaTHLEEN

I have been buying in America ever since I got tired of Chinese everything! It does not matter where you shop, nor the price range, too many goods are made in China. Other smaller countries are also being used...why? Because it is cheaper to manufacture there...as far as food, I will not buy items made in China...why? Because I have been there and I do not feel the food chain is safe!

The government said free trade opens markets for U.S. goods, well take China for example. The opening trade barriers with China did not increase the manufacturing jobs in the U.S., yet it decreased them. And now almost all the manufactured goods that U.S. corporations the are made in China are shipped directly to the country of where is will be sold not never see the U.S.A. so how did is this good for America? Bush/McCain! A sandal manufacturer as of June will shift it's manufacturing to China and someone ask the owner, about the quality going to suffer, and he said well the sandals will go to our U.S. warehouse for quality inspection. Then later own in the questions that were ask of him, what about the burning of fuels of shipping it over from the other side of the world, he said well we already get raw materials from China, now we will get the finished product instead and the sandals will be shipped directly top the country of were it will be sold and will not stop in the U.S.. Well two problems with this picture. The first is a contradictory of the owner saying they will all go to the warehouse here for inspection, yet he said the ones will be sold in other countries will not stop in U.S. some much for his alleged quality inspections. Secondly about the burring fossil fuels to ship the sandals here, he we already have raw materials shipped here, now we will have the finish product instead. Well this did not even come close to the point, in other words it is justified-able to continue to pollute the air because it is already being done. Well his sandal shipments will cause more global worming so he will sell more of his communist made sandals. He did not deny that the prices of the once made American sandals will stay the same when made in China, he said the extra profits will go to the development of new ones, YEA RIGHT!!!!!! It will only go to his pocked, by taking it out the the pocket of the American worker. The rich get richer and the poor become poorer.

The "Made in U.S.A." in the mid 1900's was an world icon of quality products and was treasured by many people around the world. As we were the exported of many manufacturing goods with great popularity, as the Made in U.S.A. meant quality, now look after so many politician's say free trade was to open other markets in third world countries, well we did not need them for we were exporting to the first world nations already. The strength of our country has been exported to China with our ability to produce and sell to other nations.

How cheap can you get. Haines clothing in China now pays their employees $120 a month (40 hour work week) in which equals to $0.75 per hour is going to move it's manufacturing to Vietnam in which is cheaper where the employees will get $50 a month (48 hour work week) in which equals to $0.26 per hour. In other words that all the money that they spend sending the factory from the U.S. to China that are relocating the manufacturing again to a place in which is now cheaper to manufacture, they are going to relocate in order to save $0.49 per hour, why they already saving about $19.00 per hour of by relocation to China from the U.S. now they want to relocate for $0.49, what greed, furthermore they are going to close the Mexico/central American plants to relocate to Vietnam as well.

Now you know why we are in this economical mess, people whom once relied on credit to live so they could live the same in the service industry as they did in the manufacturing society is now getting caught up with people were their and now they are losing their homes, filing bankruptcy etc. People are scrambling to live in a society that had a standard and coat of living that manufacturing made it possible to live comfortable, now the service industry does not pay like the factories did people are trying to live on that pay in which is insufficient and people are suffering because of it.

McCain said we need to train the people whom lost their jobs in manufacturing, train them to do what? work at McDonald's, because any jobs that pays well will eventually be outsourced like computer programmers, IT etc. And those who cannot relocate to other countries are hiring illegals here to in order to cut labor cost. Retraining is another word for we are not going to anything about free trade, yet we will train you so it looks like we are doing something about those whom loses their jobs. Maybe McCain could train a $23.00 man to work at Wal-Mart to work for $ and then that person loses his house and car to the creditors and McCain said we train him and best of all our ministration created jobs. Well that is all they done, it did not promote wealth nor restored our countries standard of living just only made it go down to the DUMPS!!!!!

First, America, stop driving the big, gas-guzzling SUVs, minivans, trucks, etc. I cannot tell you how many of these vehicles are on the road here in Western Washington with only one person inside. I don't have actual statistics, but I would say based on surveying my parking lot, that these larger-type vehicles outnumber normal passenger-type cars by 3 to 1. I understand if you "need it for work" or you have 5 or more kids to cart around -- other than that -- there are no excuses to own one of these vehicles.

Next, let's find an alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. Thank you Tesla Motors for your efforts -- now lets see if you can fight the big oil companies who will buy out and destroy your plans for producing electric cars like they did already back in the 1970's.

There is actually no reason why gas prices have skyrocketed -- other than "because they can." A barrel of oil still costs the same to produce -- something ridiculous like fifty cents per barrel --it is just the greediness of the oil companies and the people who own them.

Remember back in the 1970's when the larger vehicles were also popular? Wasn't there supposedly a gas "shortage?" Remember waiting in line at the gas station? At least back then, you were only paying about sixty or seventy cents per gallon AND you were getting your tires checked, your oil checked and your windows washed by an attendant. Now, here we are again with the big vehicles -- only now they're squeezing our pocketbooks at the pumps and offering NO service whatsoever!

We needed a new TV and asked - do you have any that are NOT made in China? Suprisingly we where told "Vizio" parts come from Australia and it is assembled in California. ...So guess what, we bought? And it works great!

I have always been very proud of being American! I was raised in the military and I have a son making a career in there now (including Iraq) ---But I am ashamed of the way our "elected" officials are selling us out. Including now trying to make us into North American Union instead of staying a sovereign nation.

If I can't buy American then I buy from Canada, Australia, New Zeland, but it is hard and of course costs more - so I buy less!

Sometimes, you don't have to buy new. Sometimes old stuff is really cool. And some of the best vintage items are made in the USA. I've found a really good selection of wonderful unique items at . You can use the search engine to find exactly what your looking for, or just click on Extraordinary and see what other people have liked.

Sometimes, you don't have to buy new. Sometimes old stuff is really cool. And some of the best vintage items are made in the USA. I've found a really good selection of wonderful unique items at the online marketplace called Bonanzle. You can use the search engine to find exactly what your looking for, or just click on Extraordinary and see what other people have liked.

I guess this article is a bit old, but I never saw one key aspect of not buying unAmerican mentioned-- that would be the not buying part. Talking about conspicuous consumption coupled with high debt. How much useless crap do you really need? If you got $5 bucks burning a hole in your pocket-- let it f-ing burn.

Made in USA Certified and the USA-C seal were established to institute a third party verification process to ensure that products were truly made in the USA.

Madein USA CERTIFIED was created by husband and wife team, Adam and Julie Reiser several years ago in response to repeated news stories about the loss of American jobs to foreign manufacturers as well as the accompanying reduction in the quality of products being imported into the United States. Parents of six boys ages 3to 14 years old, they feared that by the time their children reached employment age there would be very few domestic jobs left in the US to employ their boys. Adam and Julie were empowered to make a difference.

As a former enlisted U.S. Navy seaman 1^st class, Adam was instilled with a passion to support his Country. Inspired to help strengthen the economy of our country, he encouraged industry professionals and the buying public to "Buy American." This became the impetus for Adam and Julie to create Made in USA Magazine which features articles and information about companies that proudly manufacture their products in the United States despite increasing pressure to lower costs and ship jobs and manufacturing oversees.

Julie and Adam continued to tell the stories of these "real" US companies discovered there was no way to verifiably identify products as Made in the USA. .

Julie and Adam merged the magazine and the certification program in 2005 under the umbrella of Made in USA Certified, Inc. In addition, the Company publishes a daily online newsletter featuring news stories and articles relating to U.S. manufacturing, highlighting newly discovered problems with foreign products, and changes in relevant laws.

Made in USA Certified and the USA-C seal was established to institute a third party verification process to ensure that products were truly made in the USA.

Madein USA CERTIFIED was created by husband and wife team, Adam and Julie Reiser several years ago in response to repeated news stories about the loss of American jobs to foreign manufacturers as well as the accompanying reduction in the quality of products being imported into the United States. Parents of six boys ages 3to 14 years old, they feared that by the time their children reached employment age there would be very few domestic jobs left in the US to employ their boys. Adam and Julie were empowered to make a difference.

As a former enlisted U.S. Navy seaman 1^st class, Adam was instilled with a passion to support his Country. Inspired to help strengthen the economy of our country, he encouraged industry professionals and the buying public to "Buy American." This became the impetus for Adam and Julie to create Made in USA Magazine which features articles and information about companies that proudly manufacture their products in the United States despite increasing pressure to lower costs and ship jobs and manufacturing oversees.

Julie and Adam continued to tell the stories of these "real" US companies discovered there was no way to verifiably identify products as Made in the USA. .

Julie and Adam merged the magazine and the certification program in 2005 under the umbrella of Made in USA Certified, Inc. In addition, the Company publishes a daily online newsletter featuring news stories and articles relating to U.S. manufacturing, highlighting newly discovered problems with foreign products, and changes in relevant laws.