Made in America

According to Diane Sawyer, if we each spent $3.33 a year on American products we’d create 10,000 jobs. Because of the Made in America campaign we found out that the National Museum of American History changed their souvenirs coming from China and elsewhere to those coming from the US in only 3 months and that we still have some US flag makers. We also learned that the Made in America store in Elma, NY has products that are 100% made in America and the Clinton Global Initiative and Onshore Technology Services brings jobs to rural America instead of shipping them overseas and Arkansas Delta works with small town entrepreneurs.

This campaign told us that in the early 1960s 94% of all cars sold in America were an American brand; in 2011 only 45% are. It was said that for every 1 worker on a car assembly line it creates 9 other jobs. ABC did a comparison of Ford and Toyota both assembled in the US. It takes 6,000 workers to build the Toyota while it takes 2,250 to build the Ford and 80% of Toyota parts come from America compared to 65% of Ford’s. Toyota cars built in America create more jobs until you added in the research and development and management teams; at this point the cars are neck and neck. To help us support our own country, every new car sticker tells you what percentage of parts are US and foreign.

Additionally, the campaign pointed out that On Campus Marketing is a catalog company that has contracted with over 800 schools across America and none of their products are made in America. The participating schools’ sales get them money from the company. The average college student spends $800 on back to school supplies; $46 billion dollars that could create almost 500,000 jobs. The company was embarrassed and said it would sell American products if they were equal in quality and cost. ABC News did the catalog company’s job and searched for American made products. Although a few items did cost a little more (they did last longer), the overall made in America products purchased to complete a dorm room were $92 dollars cheaper than the foreign made products. Of course the schools didn’t ask the company where the products came from prior to signing contracts. However, Southern Methodist University said they didn’t realize the catalog didn’t sell items made in America but once their 2 year contract is up they will seek out a catalog that does. Another thing we learned was that only 4 of the 8 Republican candidates running for President bought shirts made in America as did the President; T-shirt manufacturers said if the other 4 candidates had bought shirts made in America another 500 jobs could be created.

The best and brightest kept shooting us in the foot. They made agreements with other countries to import more than we export and 98% of all clothes sold here are made overseas as well as candy and other things that used to be made here. In the last decade, 4.5 million jobs went to China. This means that after the 9/11 tragedy workers continued to stand-by their companies but, too many companies retreated and took their businesses elsewhere, tossing us aside as if we had no importance.

On October 6, 2011, per Hal Sirkin of the Boston Consulting Group, companies are discovering that an American worker puts out 4 times more than a Chinese worker and when adding in shipping costs it’s now cheaper to have products produced in America. So, about 3 million jobs are on their way back.

Unfortunately, we continue to depend on oil from other countries even though we have solar and wind being under used products. If we used more of these natural products perhaps we wouldn’t have explosions from old gas pipelines or the manipulation by Wall Street speculators driving up gas prices.

Buying American not only creates jobs but also puts extra money in the pockets of consumers which results in spending and improving our economy.