Made in USA

Saturday morning, I was in the garage with my son and he pointed out that almost all his toys say "Made in China". Now I consider myself a true American patriot, so when a seven year made special note of all this stuff made in China, I felt a sudden blow to my sense of pride in the ol' Red, White, and Blue.

After a few minutes of pondering this tragedy, my pure-capitalist thoughts crept in and I started thinking... "if we can't make it here and sell it cheaper than they can make it and ship it here, then we don't deserve to have our junk 'Made in USA'." The recent Air Force decision to go with European-subsidized Airbus over Boeing comes to mind.

I haven't bought into the concept of tariffs on foreign goods to protect the interests of American industries. I understand from my Econ 110 class at BYU the alleged need for "stabilizing" farming subsidies, but I still don't believe it is a good practice. Like any good government program it has more abusers than beneficiaries.

What happened to letting supply and demand work its magic?! Sure, Mother Nature will throw a wrench into the machine occassionally and we might end up with too much wheat...but lets be more charitable with that extra stuff rather than pay "non-farmers" millions of dollars not to farm their land.

Markets tend to correct themselves by correcting our bad economic behavior.

Jobs going overseas or to Mexico don't disturb me as much as it bothers most people. (It just bugs me when I call customer service and I can't communicate with the person.) I suppose people that have lost jobs due to outsourcing would have a different perspective, like my uncle who worked at Novell for years and lost his job when it was sent to Asia for probably a tenth of the cost. Even still, I recall a John Stossel report that seemed to debunk the idea that we are losing net jobs to foreign countries. His report was that we are in reality creating higher paying replacement jobs here.

I discussed my view with a few people at work and they immediately bring up the counter-argument that we need to have trade policies that allow the US to compete on fair ground. Is that really even possible? If businesses improve the economy and standard of living in any country, even if a person only makes a buck a day, more power to them! Now, if people, especially children, are being abused to provide goods and services, than I agree...we should not do business with them.

Why is American labor so dog-gone expensive? Sometimes I blame unions. Sometimes I think the cause is just wage-creep and inflation. Our government has been self-destructive in our economic policies. Whatever the cause is...it is a problem.

I love the United States and I love my fellow Americans. I want every American to have a fulfilling job that supports their families. I do feel a sense of patriotic pride when I buy products made here. Would it make me feel better if every product we had was manufactured here? Absolutely!

What happened to the America that could whip the crud out of any other country when it came to resourcefulness, ingenuity, and efficiency?! We are more than what we have become. We just have to reach inside ourselves and pull it out. I just hope it doesn't take a depression, an uglier war, or another catastrophe to remind us of the strength of our roots. If we are too lazy, expect more than what we are worth, have an enormous sense of entitlement, and aren't willing to work for it, then again I say, we don't deserve "Made in USA".