Buy American! Made in the USA! These and other, similar sentiments, were once proudly placed on products and bumper stickers throughout the land, a constant reminder of the need for Americans to support their own businesses, rather than go running off to buy from Japan or China, Mexico or any of the other export nations that send in goods and extract American wealth. It was a good thing, an answer to American manufacturing jobs going overseas. Buy American-made products to save American jobs, what could be simpler?
Have you noticed that sort of economic patriotism has, to a great extent, gone by the way. The disappearance is a implicit admission that America has lost vast amounts of its once-great manufacturing base, has turned from a production-based economy to a service-based economy, and that Made in the USA doesn’t mean the same thing it did a generation ago. Along with that shift from production to service has come a lowering of wages and benefits for American workers as well as a de... [Read Full Article]
