Made in USA?

We want vibrant cities with shops and boutiques, lively sidewalks, cafes and restaurants. We want easy access to grocery stores. We lament that the shops are closing and stay empty for months, even years. Meanwhile, we shop on Amazon.com to save a few dollars.

We are outraged by sweat shops in developing countries. We are against child labor.

We want even illegal immigrants to be paid a fair wage, or we say.

When it is time to buy something, the American made product costs double or more than its counterpart made somewhere else. We do not look at the quality and longevity of the products. We buy the somewhere else’s made products.

In grocery stores, we have the choice between locally grown produces and from far away fruits and veggies.

We go for the cheaper, for far away tomato, avocado, lettuce, meat that came to be on our local shelves after travelling on refrigerated trucks that contribute to vehicle emission and air pollution.

We disregard the locally grown… to save a few bucks.

We want jobs in America. We want manufactures to come back. We want decent wages. And we don’t see that out of carelessness and cheapness, we encourage oversees’ sweatshop, if not downright slavery practices, and kill our own manufacturing.

The New York Times on Sunday ran an article about an American “thriving footwear business” complaining about tariffs. How dare the US imposes taxes on articles made in China! Where are the articles about small US artisans incapable of competing with Chinese made goods’ prices? Where are the articles about deserted Main Streets?

Global economy was a mean for the rest of the planet to access the American buying power. We love to buy. We love new and shiny things. For now, we still make money, and if we don’t, access to credit is easy. We are the world’s best customer!

And we, wanting the best deal, are killing Americans’ jobs while encouraging the worst labor practices everywhere else.

And we, still after that best deal, are importing our food, our clothes, our shoes, our furniture, increasing the greenhouse effect.

And we, cheap and greedy, are closing little shops, deserting the streets, and making Amazon.com the 3rd richest company on the planet. A company that uses more robots every year to replace human workers.

When will we start looking at ourselves and realize that our actions matter? When will we stop blaming the “others” for what is going wrong on our planet, in our country? When will we make the choice to prioritize our neighbors over the other side of the planet?

We can no longer be responsible for all of humanity. We are broke. Let Asia take care of Asia. Let Europe take care of Europe. Let Africa take care of Africa. Let South America take care of South America. Did I forget Australia?

Let US take care of our families, our neighborhoods, and our country.

It may hurt our wallets and our savings a little at first, but if, collectively, we spend our money on American made goods, on local produce, on small artisans, we can reverse what the greed of big corporations and politicians did to the country.

We can bring back jobs and wealth home. We can hope for some security and peace of mind. We can lower trucks and planes’ emissions.

We have that power. All we must do is choose to whom we are giving our money. All we must do is demand that the shelves be stocked with our goods. All we must do is shop in our neighborhoods’ stores.

Why don’t we start now by turning that package of whatever it is that we want to buy and see where it was made?

Katrin L.

September 5, 2019


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