When Push Comes to Shove…

by Denny Banister

I received an e-mail which said, “Joe Smith started his day to an alarm clock (made in Japan), a coffee maker (made in China) and an electric razor (made in Hong Kong).” The gist of the story was Joe did not buy American made products, yet wondered why he could not find a good-paying American job.

I try to buy American, but it is not easy to do. The last two cars I bought were a Ford and a Chrysler. Under the hood of the Ford I saw Japanese printing on hoses and belts, and my Chrysler was made in Canada. Funny, had I bought a Honda, it might very well have been an American made car.

Even ‘all-American’ brands are not. My Magnavox TV was made in Japan, my Timex watch in the Philippines, and my Fruit of the Loom underwear – well, let’s not go there. Like it or not, we live in a global economy. The person who sent me the ‘buy American’ e-mail probably generated it, in part, with imported equipment. I’d take a Bayer Aspirin for the headache this is giving me, but Bayer is German.

What country produced the last pair of shoes you bought your kids? Did you spend extra for American made, or did you, uh – pay less? The ‘buy American’ argument says if we purchase American made products, we will create good-paying American jobs. Perhaps, but even with good-paying American jobs, would we buy American, or would we succumb to human nature and look for bargains?

We blame Wal-Mart and other chains for running small, hometown clothing stores, hardware stores and neighborhood food shops out of business. But Wal-Mart did not put these mom and pop stores out of business–we did. We decided it was more important to save a buck than support a local business. So, will we spend more to ‘buy American?’

If we ‘buy American’ only, we will give up half our gasoline supply, sharply increasing prices and decreasing our driving. Will we walk rather than buy foreign oil? No! When push comes to shove, Americans will push and shove at gas stations to fill SUVs, without concern for the fuel source.

And if we ‘buy American’ only, will we ‘sell American’ only? Surely we would not expect to profit from selling abroad if we refuse to purchase abroad. But without overseas markets, more than a third of our farmers would go belly-up immediately. And so would many American businesses who produce and sell to foreign markets – businesses providing thousands with good-paying American jobs.

Yes, it is hard to compete with countries whose workers have a low standard of living. But even as their standard of living increases, it will still be hard to compete. Why? Because producers in most countries do not have expensive rules and regulations forced upon them by agencies like EPA and OSHA. Also, while U.S. import tariffs are at 12 percent, worldwide tariffs for our exports average about 62 percent.

Some say we should force our environmental and labor regulations on other countries. Even if we could, is that our place? But we can level the playing field by removing such regulatory handcuffs from U.S. producers. Americans can compete internationally if not overburdened with costly rules and regulations.

Speaking of international markets, we, above all, must not isolate ourselves. The only way to equalize tariffs and other inconsistencies is to participate in world trade talks. We Americans attempted to isolate ourselves in the past. I pray we have learned from two world wars.