ABC news report Furnish Home with "Made in America" only.

[OWC Jamie]

macphanatic wrote:
[quote=goosegunner]
[quote=Rolando]
[quote=pRICE cUBE]

I've said it before. SAm WAlton was a sonnavabitch, but he wanted and proudly sold goods "Made in USA"
After he died, his kids decided to increase profits and push manufacturing to china ; and lobby to eliminate the the only tax on the money they got the old fashioned way: they inherited it!
I remember going to one of the first Walmarts in our State. It was back in 1987 and there were stickers and signs everywhere that said made in the USA. They spent a lot of time and money making sure the customer knew that.

You would probably be hard pressed to find something made in the USA in a Walmart now.

We Americans need to share some of the blame. People want as much stuff as they can get and as cheap as they can get it....


gg
And how many of the employees were made in the USA? I don't mean to imply that immigrants shouldn't get work. Point is that, in most areas a non-management job at W-mart will get you just above poverty level.

The greeter should have his own Leer jet.


A high per centage of the groceries are Made in USA, as are the flora ( some are aired in from south america and amsterdam), pharmaceuticals , greeting cards, books, AMMO ( :-) ), some of the plastic items like garbage cans, pre-recorded compact discs, etc. Made in USA supposedly still comprises 40% of Walmart sales.
They still suck, though.

[Rick-o]

deckeda wrote:
Your Sienna---what did those non-union workers do with the cash they earned? "Waste it" on their mortgages, or food? (No offense Rick, really.)

No offense taken, I'm well beyond that when discussing crap like this in online forums.

All I have to say is that those non-union workers had better wake up and organize. War has been declared on the working class and if we don't watch out, there will only be two types left in this country. Filthy rich, and dirt poor. Forget about anything in between, it won't exist.

[M A V I C]

I was never able to find a tea kettle made in the US. It wasn't surprising on the show they couldn't find a coffee pot or any consumer grade kitchen appliances. I didn't see last night's show, but thus far they haven't covered electronics.

Finding baby stuff is extremely difficult. We recently discovered that while some baby blankets we had were "Made in the USA" the fabric was actually imported from Japan and likely from a supplier which says their products aren't for "commercial use" and that any lawsuits related to the fabric (including poison issues) have to be handed in Japan.

Most crib manufacturers have pulled out of the US. None of the cribs sold at stores like Babies R Us are finished with a finish that is known to be non-toixic. We managed to find one of the last US made cribs and I stained it myself using non-toxic stain (which was a pain to find.)

billb wrote: A high per centage of the groceries are Made in USA, as are the flora ( some are aired in from south america and amsterdam),

You might be surprised. I look to see where they're made and a ton of groceries aren't made in the US.

pharmaceuticals

Are usually made from foreign ingredients.

greeting cards, books,

Very often made from foreign paper.

[deckeda]

Rick-o wrote:
[quote=deckeda]
Your Sienna---what did those non-union workers do with the cash they earned? "Waste it" on their mortgages, or food? (No offense Rick, really.)

No offense taken, I'm well beyond that when discussing crap like this in online forums.

All I have to say is that those non-union workers had better wake up and organize. War has been declared on the working class and if we don't watch out, there will only be two types left in this country. Filthy rich, and dirt poor. Forget about anything in between, it won't exist.
I have a largely liberal with a capital "L" leaning, particularly where it comes to social issues (maybe less so when discussing economic issues, although I think they're both so intertwined that ...) and having two parents who retired with decent pensions from teaching (both of them were part of the NEA; I don't know how much of that factored into the school district having a decent pension plan, but for the sake of argument it's fair to assume it surely did. I KNOW it certainly never got them rich). Maybe because that's a "service" and not manufacturing sector, the NEA isn't a relevant example here.

Despite all that, I've always viewed jobs and careers and individual endeavors. Your job sucks, you leave and find something else. Need to move? Go to school? OK, and so that's a problem how? I get that many decades ago, workers didn't have a voice and needed one, at least as far as Hollywood has shown us, but isn't today different ---at least a little --- insofar as workers have more opportunity to ... do something else? Does everyone within a certain cultural or regional area "have to" work at a factory, and more to the point, is that sort of career the only---or even main one---that "defines" what we refer to as "the middle class?

The greater issue I have discussing this stuff is that it's hard not to frame it all into absolutist "if-then" scenarios.

[Mac1337]

If you believe in all that then you are not a liberal. You have just made a case that people can affect their own lives and need not sit around so others can do it for them. This alone makes you persona non grata within liberal circles.Admitting to yourself that you are not a liberal is a whole 'nother story.

[decocritter]

This was not meant to be political. We can take the political part to the other side.

Interesting just how many goods or the materials that goods are made with, are not made in the USA. As the main story shows, you can almost furnish a house with USA made products. Almost. No electronics, not many quality appliances. GE these days is junk.

Why should it take a tremendous effort to "buy American".

A consumer that is lower middle class is forced to buy foreign, just to spend his money on quality goods that might last. I have to buy what is going to suit my needs and last. I am paying attention and buying American, if at all possible for everyday items. But if I spend $500 on a TV, where do I get it?


We get a lot of nice imported goods, but we are getting a lot of pure junk, that we are paying a premium for. The textile industry is an example. We had some of the best cotton mills and products. And so do other countries, the options were nice to have. Old GE appliances were like tanks, while new ones might last 6 months.

Other countries supposedly import a lot from the USA, I would like to know more about that.

I think it is about balance. Bringing customer service and hard goods industry back to this country to a large degree would be a start. The banking industry should have been required to use American employees, in America.

[deckeda]

I agree, deco, we are buying a lot of stuff that's crap, when we could easily buy that crap made here (to sorta kinda put what you said another way.) The U.S. used to make some true crap that was pricey, such as Curtis Mathis TVs. Luckily for the rest of us, Panasonic (under the Quasar name at first) and Sony put them out of business.

The fascinating thing is that so many U.S. corporations today assume they need to outsource manufacturing and then someone comes along and shows them that such a phenomenon isn't necessarily required. That article is a good example.

******************************************

Dakota, the part that will really hurt your brain is the notion that the world is not that cut-and-dried. Amusing how you took one aspect of one of my concerns and like flipping on a light switch, simply decided the rest of what you consider to be the case must, by definition, be true.

Like for example how outsourcing labor and filling stores with imported goods is directly related to the capitalistic profit motive that drives everything big corporations are about, and who they must report to. Look a wee bit longer in the mirror first, the next time you're deciding who to support with votes and forum posts.

[Rolando]

Dakota wrote:
If you believe in all that then you are not a liberal. You have just made a case that people can affect their own lives and need not sit around so others can do it for them. This alone makes you persona non grata within liberal circles.Admitting to yourself that you are not a liberal is a whole 'nother story.

Sounds like you don't know what a liberal is, only what Fox Noise tells you what a liberal is!