Buy American Blog

Wednesday, November 28, 2007: A day of firsts

It's been a good day for Yes! You Can Buy American. My first Amazon referral was logged, for a book someone bought yesterday. Thank you, whoever that was. And I had not one, but two contact forms submitted from visitors. The first came from a reporter doing a story on Made in USA products and how/where to find them. (More on that when the story runs.) The second came from a woman who submitted three companies that have now been added to the database. (Welcome to AG Jeans, Hardware Handbags, and Pacifica Candles.)

Submissions and suggestions are definitely appreciated. I've found most of the companies by surfing the web, as well as combing our house for products and looking for ideas every time I go shopping. I've gotten into the habit of carrying a notebook with me when I go to the mall or Lowe's. When I see something with that "Made in USA" logo, I note it and look it up later. But to have visitors suggest companies, that's a huge help. You can submit a company by using the New Link form, or if you've got more than one and you don't want to fill it out multiple times, just drop me an e-mail.

Of course, if you don't have a link to suggest, your comments are still welcome. Use the Contact form or send an e-mail. It's always nice to hear from people who are concerned about finding American made products.

Monday, November 26, 2007: So much for Cyber Monday

Today was supposed to be the biggest online shopping day of the year, cyberspace's answer to Black Friday. I was bracing for a big traffic day here as people searched for Made in USA gifts for the holidays. Didn't turn out that way. Maybe there was a lot of shopping going on out there, but the numbers were higher last week here at Yes! You Can Buy American. The site is still pretty new and I need to keep spreading the word.

That's something you can help with, by the way. If you're out and about on the internet on blogs or sites that discuss Made in USA and trade issues, drop a reference with the URL. Can't hurt. The more links we get out there, the more we can help people find some cool products and boost the bottom lines for these American companies.

Towards that end, last week I set up a virtual store through Amazon, to help people find American-made gifts. It's basically a collection of items to give shoppers some ideas. If you click through and buy something we get a tiny cut as a referral fee, which we can use toward maintenance of the site. Kind of a win-win deal. Check out the store if you haven't already.

And if you have any suggestions to share, send them in. Use the Contact page and let us know if there are any great American-made products that you think people should hear more about while there's still plenty of shopping time left. I'll include any suggestions in future blogs.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007: Short attention span?

Lead. Cadmium. The date-rape drug. A series of highly publicized recalls this year has Chinese goods on trial at the moment. For those of us banging the Made in America drum, it seems like sweet justice. Business is booming at numerous small, American toy manufacturers, many of whom have hired extra staff to help them keep up. But will those new jobs turn out to be temporary hires?

Both the "experts" and several of my acquaintances have predicted this will pass. When the hubbub dies down people will go right back to shopping the way they always have, not reading the labels, or not caring if they do. Some have already. One friend mentioned she headed to the mall with the best intentions and came home with a bag of Chinese-made toys. In all the shopping excitement, she had forgotten to look at the tags.

I hate to concede it, but this newfound awareness won't last. There will be a certain segment of the marketplace that maintains their vigilance against shoddy, dangerous imports. I only hope it's not as small as it was before. I hope there are more than a handful of us here able to resist Wal-mart's seductive new ad tagline: "Save money. Live better."

To Wal-mart and many of its shoppers, cheaper is better all the way around. Most of the products they sell are imported, with a staggering percentage from China. The products are cheap, and consumers love to save money. But at what cost?

There's more to the perils of outsourcing than just the physical danger of tainted toys. There is a long-term danger to our economy when we are reliant on other nations for the goods we consume. Our deficit with China sets a new record every year. Last year it was $232.5 billion. This year it will be higher. We are sending them a ton of our money for their goods and they aren't returning much of it in exchange for our goods.

What are they doing with all that money? In part they are financing our ever-expanding national debt. In part they are investing in real estate and other property in the US. I don't think it's healthy for us to be in debt to them on either score. What happens when they call in our tab?

Some among the "all trade is good trade" crowd throw around labels like Xenophobic and Protectionist when anyone questions the health of these trade relationships. It's as if they're saying buying American is unAmerican. I disagree. To me, buying American--supporting American workers and American jobs--is one of the highest forms of patriotism. Not only do we keep our own people working by doing so, we keep the manufacturing base viable.

When we lose the capability to manufacture en masse, we as a nation become vulnerable. In the 1940s, when our soldiers were off fighting WW II, the folks at home were cranking out uniforms, tanks and weaponry to back the war effort. Ordinary factories were converted for temporary use to defend our country. Many of those factories are shuttered now. What will we do when we need them? Will we call in an order to China?

No superpower should ever become so reliant on other nations that it can't produce the ordinary and extraordinary goods it needs to survive. No superpower should become reliant on other nations to finance its day-to-day operations. We are treading on dangerous territory here, and the lead issue is only the tip of the iceberg.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007: Trade and the presidential campaign

The presidential races are heating up, and we're now less than two months from Iowa and New Hampshire opening the primary voting process. One issue we're not hearing much about is trade. This is disappointing because jobs and our economy taken as a whole is possibly the most important day in-day out issue in the life of the average American.

I spent a couple hours tonight poking around the web sites of the 16 candidates for president. Generally speaking, Democrats gave more space and placement to trade on their sites. Among Democrats, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich offered the most detailed proposals on trade, and both feel strongly about the need to rework many of our trade deals. I couldn't find anything about trade on Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama's sites. This is too important a topic for them to not have anything to say. Among Republicans, Duncan Hunter was the only one to really step up and address trade on his site, and it's a high-priority issue for him. The leading Republicans who mentioned trade seem happy to keep things going with foreign countries flooding our markets with cheap crap. Edwards, Kucinich and Hunter were the only candidates to impress me with their stands on trade, and sadly none of them seem to have much of a shot at earning their party's nomination.

Edwards (www.johnedwards.com) has strong pro-worker positions outlined on his site, and includes a proposal specifically addressing the influx of unsafe toys and other goods from China. Kucinich (www.dennis4president.com) says he would end U.S. participation in both NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. He outlines plans to prevent the outsourcing of high-tech jobs, such as computer programming. He wants to start a new WPA program using U.S. manufacturing to rebuild our infrastructure. He'd ban the sale of any goods made in sweat shops. He would also reward companies who keep jobs in America with tax incentives.

Joe Biden (www.joebiden.com) has one paragraph about defending workers' rights and opposing CAFTA. Chris Dodd (www.chrisdodd.com) mentions his intention to enforce trade laws and open other countries to our goods. He authored the U.S. Worker Protection Act to prevent federal agencies from outsourcing jobs overseas. Mike Gravel (www.gravel2008.us) wants to reform NAFTA and cites statistics saying it cost the U.S. more than a million jobs. Hillary Clinton (www.hillaryclinton.com) doesn't address trade whatsoever. I couldn't find anything about trade on Barack Obama's site (www.barackobama.com) either. And Bill Richardson (www.richardsonforpresident.com) only briefly mentioned manufacturing in his general plan to invest in workers by offering tax credits, I guess to companies who hire. It was a little fuzzy.

Republican Duncan Hunter (www.gohunter08.com) lists just three issues in his Issues pulldown menu. Fair Trade was one of them. He's got an eight-minute video on his site where he talks about fair trade, mostly from a tax standpoint. He says China (and other countries) gives its manufacturers a tax subsidy for products they export, while turning around and taxing imports from the U.S. He vows to renegotiate bad trade deals, like the ones we have with just about every country. He also points out that our manufacturing base is shrinking to the point that our national security is jeopardized. He would offer U.S. manufacturers a zero-tax deal to help spur the growth of our manufacturing sector.

Ron Paul (www.ronpaul2008.com) wants the U.S. out of NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO and just about any other international organization, trade or otherwise. His reasoning is based on American independence and not wanting any other groups to be able to tell us what to do as they can under those deals.

John McCain (www.johnmccain.com) has it all backwards. He's free trade all the way and his biggest fear is that the "rising tide of economic isolationism is threatening our entrepreneurs." He doesn't seem to sweat it too much that "competition can lead to painful dislocations for some individuals." (That's a fancy way of saying too bad that you got laid off because the Chinese can do your job cheaper. We'll send you to community college and train you for a job making half of what you used to.) Mitt Romney (www.mittromney.com) is pretty much in the same boat. He suggests that through better education we can compete with China and other Asian countries. He rails agains the protectionism and wants to keep on keeping on as far as free trade goes.

Rudy Giuliani (www.joinrudy2008.com) had nothing to say on the topic, at least not that I could find. Fred Thompson (www.fred08.com) mentions Free Trade as one of his Principles, but offers no specifics on how he plans to open foreign markets to our goods. Mike Huckabee (www.explorehuckabee.com) says he believes in free trade if it's fair trade, but then says that globalization has been a blessing because it's allowed average folk to buy mass-produced goods for cheap. Doesn't sound to me like he gets it. Tom Tancredo (www.teamtancredo.org) is against CAFTA on the grounds that the fine print allows foreign workers the rights to enter the U.S. He thinks that the falling import taxes have been a great thing for the American people because we have so many things to shop for.

On the whole, it was disappointing to see that trade isn't a higher priority for more candidates. And some of them who addressed it seem to like things the way they are. Anyone got an extra set of Aqua Dots for them to chew on out on the campaign trail?

Monday, November 5, 2007: Changes and improvements

Take a look around the site and you will see some changes and improvements. For starters I've created a database of companies, broken down by category. You can get to it by jumping to the Links page. I'll be adding to this as I find more interesting companies, so keep checking back. In addition to the Christmas ideas posted, you may find plenty of nice gifts by sifting through the database. Two of the most recent additions were Vermont Originals, which makes handmade knit caps and Christmas stockings, and the Vermont Butcher Block and Board Company, which makes beautiful wooden cutting boards and knife blocks.

I've also added contact forms on the Book and Contact Us pages, as well as a form to suggest additional links. I welcome your input. I'd like to fix this Blog page up to allow user comments, but all in good time. First I need to spruce up the home page. I'm doing all the coding myself, so it's a lot of trial and error, but I'm confident I'll have things looking good before long.

Thursday, November 1, 2007: Lead-tainted items still widely available

If you check the recall listings on the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site these days, most of the entries deal with lead levels. It's not safe to assume, however, that just because something hasn't been recalled that it doesn't contain an alarmingly high amount of lead. Several groups have done lead tests on products they've found on store shelves in recent weeks. On Monday, Consumer Reports called for a federal investigation into the lead levels of Fisher-Price's toy medical kits.

The magazine tested six samples of a blood pressure cuff in the medical kit. Three of them were fresh off store shelves and three came from households that had purchased the toys previously. One toy, which had been in use for two years, contained lead at a rate of 10,000 parts per million. The accepted standard is 600 parts per million.

The toys in question were manufactured in China, as have been most of the lead-tainted products recalled this year. Lead has been linked to serious problems with children's development. It can be absorbed by licking or sucking on toys, something most small children do on a regular basis.

Two words for anyone concerned about lead in toys: Buy American.

Paint containing more than 600 parts per million of lead was banned in the U.S. in 1978. One of the key reasons companies find it more profitable to make their goods in China is the lack of health and safety regulations. They may find it worth their while to stop using lead in the wake of all of these costly recalls, but do you have any idea how many contaminated products are sitting on store shelves right now? They don't look any different. How can you spot them? It's not practical for you to have to test the stuff before you bring it into your house. Buy American-made toys this Christmas and avoid the trouble.

Monday, October 29, 2007: Made for kids by kids

I always thought the "Kids" part of GapKids was referring to who wore the clothes, not who made them. But an investigation by the Observer of London has revealed Indian children working in virtual slavery to create clothing for Gap stores. Children as young as 10 were sold to clothing contractors and forced to work 16 hours a day making embroidered garments under the GapKids label.

The children were not paid for their work, because they were classified by their employer as trainees. Part of the training involved beating them with a rubber pipe if they didn't work hard enough. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed in their mouths as a punishment. The factory reeked of feces flowing from a flooded toilet. (Another good reason to wash your new clothes before you wear them.)

Gap has made an effort in recent years to clean up its manufacturing and end its relationships with child sweatshops. When the Observer report came out, they vowed to take action, and promised to destroy the garments made in this particular factory so they won't be purchased by consumers.

Too little, too late. How many thousands of child-made garments have already been purchased at Gap stores (Old Navy and Banana Republic are part of this chain)? How many others are on the shelves waiting for a Christmas shopper? I'm not buying this being an isolated incident.

China is an easy target when it comes to sweatshops and shoddy, unsafe manufacturing. But it's India that's been tabbed by the United Nations as the child labor capital of the world.

The Observer article quoted Bhuwan Ribhu, a Delhi lawyer and activist for the Global March Against Child Labour, as saying "The reality is that most major retail firms are in the same game, cutting costs and not considering the consequences. They should know by now what outsourcing to India means. It is an impossible task to track down all of these terrible sweatshops, particularly in the garment industry when you need little more than a basement or an attic crammed with small children to make a healthy profit. Some owners even hide the children in sacks and in carefully concealed mezzanine floors designed to dodge such raids.

"Employing cheap labour without proper auditing and investigation of your contractor inevitably means children will be used somewhere along the chain. This may not be what they want to hear as they pull off fresh clothes from clean racks in stores but shoppers in the West should be thinking 'Why am I only paying 30 [pounds] for a hand-embroidered top. Who made it for such little cost? Is this top stained with a child's sweat?' That's what they need to ask themselves."

Ask yourself that question when you go Christmas shopping this year. Why is this sweater so cheap? Whose little fingers worked to make it? And were they beaten with a rubber hose for taking too long?

A second Observer story quoted Professor Sheotaj Singh, co-founder of a Delhi-based rehabilitation centre and school for rescued child workers. "It is obvious what the attraction is here for Western conglomerates," he told The Observer. "The key thing India has to offer the global economy is some of the world's cheapest labour, and this is the saddest thing of all the horrors that arise from Delhi's 15,000 inadequately regulated garment factories, some of which are among the worst sweatshops ever to taint the human conscience.

"Consumers in the West should not only be demanding answers from retailers as to how goods are produced but looking deep within themselves at how they spend their money."

I can't say it any better than that. If these reports of child labor trouble you at all (i.e. you have a conscience), do a little digging before you buy that shirt or pair of pants. What's life like for the person who made it?

Of course, if you buy American made products, you can be confident they were made by adults who were paid for their efforts. There are many American clothing manufacturers out there, making stylish and fashionable clothes. Check out American Apparel and All American Clothing for starters.