Buying American Made

 

Buying American made products is absolutely crucial to stabilizing the American economy. Buying American made products is becoming harder to do as most products available in the marketplace today were produced in other nations. There are a combination of factors in play that are adding up to fewer American made products being available for sale.

First there was the restoration of China’s Most Favored Nation status in 1980 after it had been suspended since 1951. This has opened the American market up to the multitude of cheap Chinese products. Congress has failed in several attempts to suspend or restrict China’s Most Favored Nation Status based on their human rights violations, but have been unable to do so. This means that American industries restricted by workers’ rights must compete directly with Chinese industries with no such restrictions. This is not exactly an even playing field.

The passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is another thing that has crippled industry in the United States. When NAFTA was passed, those who passed it believed that America may loose some lower paying low tech jobs, but gain some higher paying high tech jobs. If you understand economics, you understand that when all restrictions are lifted between three economies the way they were lifted between Mexico, Canada, and the United States by NAFTA, those three economies are going to equalize. The weaker economies will get stronger, and t he stronger economies will get weaker. That would seam like common sense. The United States had the stronger economy of the three. Now American industries that were struggling to compete with the Chinese have the choice of keeping their factories in the United States where they have to pay workers wages and benefits driven up by labor unions who have priced American workers out of the world market, or building a new factory in Mexico where the workers expect less.

These things have added up to American made products being harder to find. As American consumers we need to take the time to find American made products and buy them whenever possible.

Why is it so important to buy American made products? It is important because nations gain wealth by having a favorable balance of trade. Right now America has a trade deficit. This means we are loosing our wealth to other nations like China and Mexico. If we keep our money in the American economy it can continue to roll, move from one individual to another as they purchase goods and services, increasing the gross domestic product exponentially. Once the money leaves our economy it can no longer help to grow our wealth. Instead it grows the economies of the nations to which it was traded.

So then, it is important to buy American made product in order to avoid a trade deficit. You want to avoid a trade deficit because it slows your economy and helps to grow your national debt.

As a sportsman, try to do what is right for America. Try to find American made products when it is possible. Buy American made when you can afford it. After all, if the trade deficit continues to get larger, and the economy collapses, you may not have the extra money to hunt.

Buckman