There is a lot of talk days about our economy. How we need to retract all those foreign jobs and bring them back home for the American worker. Also, the illegal immigrant situation adds to this. If these workers are removed, American workers would replace them. Win Win situation right?

We (Americans) put alot of pride on our home made products. We love to claim things like toughness, reliability and power as well as all around "better" built.

This has gotten me to wondering...

We also LOVE our low low rolling back prices. Many of us don't want to pay any more for thing than we have to. But anywhere we replace a cheaper worker for a higher paid worker will have to increase the price we pay on just about everything.


The question is would you shop at a "Made in America" store where everything was made, produced and manufactured here in American by the American worker. Even though you would likely pay a little more for everything on the shelf than what you would find at Walmart? Or would you shop where the products are cheapest no matter what?

Vote and Discuss...

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Well i'm a Canadian but I will always buy North American when I can. I don't care about saving a buck, I care about quality and not sending all our jobs and all our money overseas.

I'd buy American. Unless we're talking electronics and automobiles.....then I'd buy Japanese, Taiwanese, German, Swedish, Italian, Korean or Canadian (My Blackberry). Hehe, so yeah I'd buy American.

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NAFTA (although I'm not sure if its still active or not)

I would be glad to pay for goods made by legal American workers as long as those goods are in fact made to the the standard of high American quality.

Raw materials can come and go from the US as they please, if we take everyone else's raw materials then we can save our own and corner the market eventually.

A good example of this would be Jasper rebuilt motors and transmissions. They are a quality product, they have a very good warranty, and they are made in America.

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I guess what I am trying to get at is are we willing to pay more to support America, our American Workers and being able to support more American jobs.

The reality of quality/inferior products is very important. But I guess I am looking at this from a strictly "I will pay more if it means bring home jobs and hopefully improving our country, even if it does not directly effect me other than costing me more money." and not looking at all the politics and all the other reasons that either stop or make people want to buy one way or another.

Would you pay more because you new you were it was creating and keeping those jobs for Americans here in the States? Clothing, Toys, Plastic Goods ect...
Buying a automobile is inconsequential for this IMO. You can find a car priced higher or lower than any other car, where its made is no difference. I am referring to the things we buy everyday.


Even think about this....

If there were two McDonald's next to one another. One employed immigrants with working visa's and the other employed American citizens. A Big Mac costs 50 cents more at the "American restaurant because they paid their workers a better wage then the immigrant restaurant. Food was the same, the only difference was that everything cost more at the American store. Which one would you go to?

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I'd surely go to the American one!
Or rather the Canadian one in my case

I buy quality #1 for camping, PB and other gear I need that is used and abused. I look for the USA label. that option is not always offered.

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I'd buy American, I didn't serve this country to turn around and dump those dollars that I can avoid into pockets outside our borders. I am not against people coming here the legal way and living life as an american, and having the American Dream for themselves,but from what I've seen in this area ( I live near the carpet capital of the world ), we have a huge influx of south americans who are not legals somehow working in these carpet mills(and also in the chattanooga chicken processing industry), who exploit them and pay them less than what an american would be worth. While also reducing the wages for other employees as they replace people (wages are driven lower, ouch) This itself wouldn't be as bad if the workforce had the desire to succeed , live and stay in the USA, but they don't, they live in places with as many of them as they can pack in, to share out the cost and allow all to save more, they save up to their target goal and they go back to their country a rich person to live out their days or set up their businesses back in their home countries, never having learned english, maybe speaking 10 or less words just so they can get by long enough to leave, but spanish is now the second language of the USA, we have to cater to them, because ... why was that again?

It kills me to go out to the chicken plants in chattanooga to service their equipment and I can't even communicate with their employees because they don't care to learn the language... but all the home depots and lowes' have spanish sub-titles on the aisle markers, wouldn't want to inconvenience the un-motivated would we?. sorry for the rant, but I see this kinda stuff everyday, the faces revolve, but it's the same story.

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"For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised, He is to be feared above all gods" Ps. 96:4

In a Perfect World:

I would just go down to Olsens Mercantile and trade some Fresh Eggs for my provisions and then later go over to Mr.Edwards house and swap some skilled trade w/him (He would Fix my Wagon I would Shoe his Horse).

If me or my family got sick we would call Doc.Baker and he would come over and cure us because it is his creed to do so, and later when we were feeling better my 'Ole Lady would bake a fresh Apple Pie and bring it to him as a way of saying Thank You.

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Same here, Try to buy American but some things are better elsewhere.