Buy American?

Buy American?  Interesting Mantra, people have been spouting it off for years. Chanting at rallies. As if repetition itself will convince us all it is the only decision to be made. Interesting subject to be sure.  People need to be aware of the choices they have.  Personally, I like choices.  A Lot.

The real trick is to take advantage of the chinese give aways and subsidized exports without closing down our production in the process.  Giving a free citizen a choice is a good thing, if we can find a way to be competitive doing it. The trick is educating people as to what their choices are, and letting them choose.  If the American companies still fail, the open and free marketplace will have failed them, or bad management, or whatever, and they will not be deserving in any way of my tax dollars to keep them afloat.

Oh, by the way, at manufacturing level, by the time an importer pays freight and other charges to land the chinese stuff, they really have somewhere between 50 and 90% of the "american" cost wrapped up in most of it.   Sometimes it almost doesn't pay to import things, but there is the exception.  There are things made in China that, even with freight, brokers, taxes etc included, cost about 10% of the USA cost.  Usually those are small items, like a rubber seal that costs 3 cents landed if we import it, and a buck if we buy domestic.  But the importer has to buy half a million of them, and will have the labor in selling them, and the overhead in inventory, interest, etc.

A chinese alternator may cost me 69 bucks, and a the same american alternator, (probably with many foreign components) will cost me 139.  Both have the same warranty, but you can count on the chinese one lasting about half as long.  If I had to pay for labor, the American one would pay for itself easily.  For a jobless guy with kids at home who is installing that alternator himself to keep his old beater on the road, no matter how much he wants to buy American, I can see why he would buy chinese.

And what about electronics?  Everybody has a cel phone. Would we still all want cel phones, for us and all our kids,  if they were a grand?  Two grand?  Ban imports, and put that $30.00 per hour plus benefits Union worker who gets 6 weeks paid vacation per year to work making it. Then let that greedy American corporation pay it's management millions upon millions of dollars in bonuses and stock options, further inflating the price.  See if you ever touch a cel phone for under a grand again. That is why Korean cars are 10 grand and American cars are less relaible and cost 3 times as much.  That is also why we can;t buy Curtis Mathes TV's made in the USA anymore.  I don;t blame the chinese for that. Our greed, from the hourly worker to the CEO, caused a lot of our problems. We priced ourselves out of the market.

I am all for buying American, when it makes sense.  Faucets for your house?  The best are American, and reasonably priced to boot.  Sinks, the same.  Car parts?  The best are American or European assembled, may not have all American or European parts, but there is a HUGE gap in price compared to Asian made parts. That is why you have a choice on those. Price vs quality, the stereotypical choice.

It is all about choices.  My motorcycle is American, and it cost significantly more than a similar model made by a Japanese company, but to me, the Harley was worth the expense.  I chose to pay more for the "American" product, (Before you jump my ass on this one, I am under no illusions about the origins of many of the parts it took to make it).  I wouldn't pay a grand for a cel phone though, just because it was American made. Nor would I pay triple for a TV.  But I appreciate having a choice.

Choice is the key. If the Socialists we call our Government force me to pony up tax dollars to artificially keep an American company afloat, then where is my "Choice" then? I am all for, say, GM workers making 30-40 bucks an hour if they can get it, and I don't have anything against their management making millions for themselves, so long as:
Management is not asking the laborers to give concessions when management is not willing to concede just as much themselves. and...
I am not being forced to subsidize either damn one of them, all making a lot more than me, with my hard earned tax dollars.

Being American is about being free, free to make choices.  If you run your company with poor choices, you will fail.  If somebody offers a similar product to yours so be it.  I will.need to choose.  Quality vs price.  American vs import. Whatever the difference, whatever the choice.  I am the marketplace, and I should get to choose.  If you made your product competitive, I may choose yours.