There is a good reason why Government officials cannot tell you to do certain things; in this instance, and probably this is the only instance where, these officials are right in doing so.
In this Global economy where every country depends on another country to trade with, to buy from, to sell to, people and governments must learn to walk a very fine line for their survival.
That fine line gets much finer and delicate when it comes to governments and their officials. Every word, every physical expression, every move, which is measured, analyzed, scrutinized, politicized may result in peace treaties, or cause wars to erupt.
When a temporary savings of 5 cents is costing hundreds of dollars in the end, people should avoid shooting themselves in the foot and must think for themselves and decide which serves their best interest in the long run.
The Government cannot demand or force us to buy American nor impose tariffs and fees for imports to discourage us from buying cheaper imported goods; that will be seen as Protectionism. And if we adopt that philosophy or mentality, all countries we export to will do the same to our products.
The Government cannot force us to buy American preaching Patriotism. Every country and its people love their country and are patriotic enough without the government pushing them to be one.
The people however, can take matters into their own hands and buy American without making public announcements for the purposes of Self Preservation.
Take a moment and think of this, every penny you are saving by buying a product made outside of the US is costing you an extra dollar and a job. Here is why and how:
Although I congratulate all emerging countries for the advances they are making in their countries; I can’t help but notice it has tremendous and very dangerous effects on our country’s future. By just comparing per capita income of 3 sample countries we will see where things are heading.
The same product manufactured in the US will cost $47,400 (U.S. Annual Capita Income)/$3,339 (India’s Annual Capita Income) = 14.195 times what it would cost in India and $47,400 (U.S. Annual Capita Income) /$7,518 (China’s Annual Capita Income) =6.305 times what it would cost in China in labor. Source: Chinahttp://bit.ly/jKOafJ $7,518 India http://bit.ly/jcAt3E $3,339 U.S. http://bit.ly/iV09Bu $47,400
When we add all other developed countries which are doing the same thing, buying from outside their country, we are creating a volume which is adding up to an additional 25 million jobs needed and created per year in China alone. Where, at the same time, and in the same period, we cannot even create the million jobs needed a year, just to keep up with our population growth. This new middle class surge is in the emerging markets such as: China, India by the millions is causing a huge demand on everything from food, clothing, shelter, wood, copper, oil and everything every middle and upper class people need and use.
The leaders of these emerging countries deserve a lot of credit for achieving the success they have and still are achieving. Especially interesting is their mentality of buying all natural resource mines they can possibly put their hands on around the world; by taking this kind of an approach they are securing the pricing and production control, which most developed capitalist countries didn’t even think of doing until recently.
This high demand in all commodities, supplies, housing, and manufacturing has made prices here in the US unaffordable for us. Building a 1300 sq.ft. house that used to cost $50,000-$60,000 10 years ago is now costing $150,000-$200,000 because the cost of materials have doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled. U.S. labor costs, were already more expensive than labor in almost any other country. So the few cents we are saving on a toy or a sofa made in outside the US is costing us our American Dream andThe Jobs that used to make it possible to achieve those dreams.
Self Preservation is not a shame, it is not forbidden; it is a must to save our country, the next generations and their future in this country. We cannot expect companies to hire in the U.S. and provide us jobs and job security, when we are buying Chinese, Indian, Korean, or any other country but American to save a penny. They, the companies, manufacturers, service industries will have to hire in those countries to make the goods we are looking for, to buy them for cheap in here, the United States. Buying others’ products, because we are saving few pennies here and there, is like winning the battle but losing the war. Winning the battle, because we could save few dollars a month, but, losing the war, because we are losing the jobs and the income to afford those products to be able to buy them in the first place. We are losing the American Dream.
It is us who can do something about this situation, not the government, not the companies we keep blaming.
The Government cannot tell you to Buy American, I can.
