How American’s Can Buy American
The Power of Consumer Patriotism
Over the next few months I will be posting valuable information from the book “How American’s Can Buy American” written by Roger Simmermaker.
In his book Mr. Simmermaker explains the importance of being an educated consumer. He also provides insight on how important it is for all of us as Americans to purchase “Made in America” products and the positive impact this will have on rebuilding America’s manufacturing capabilities, thus expanding the potential for jobs in this country.
Supporting American Companies and their products leads to a more Independent America. Ownership equals control, and control equals Independence. We cannot claim to be an independent country or control our own destiny if our manufacturing base is under foreign ownership.
A nation that cannot supply its own needs is not an independent nation.
To be a truly sovereign nation, we must begin by supplying our own needs.
I
hope that you will find the information in my upcoming postings of value, and
will use that knowledge to become a “Powerful Consumer Patriot”
Americans feel a strong connection to the wisdom of our founding fathers. Travel around our great country, and you will see quotes from these remarkable men gracing the walls and halls of our buildings. Thomas Jefferson offered this about Buying American made goods.
“I have come to a resolution myself, as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make, be the difference of price what it may”
The 3 most important choices we need to take into consideration when making purchases.
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Ownership: In what Country is the Company or Corporate headquarters based? |
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Made: In what Country is the product produced, assembled or manufactured? |
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3. Parts content: From what Country or Countries do the parts come from? |
We must prioritize our
choices in order to determine which ones are the most beneficial for the
American economy. Ownership is the most important part of the Buy American
picture for many reasons. The foremost being that American
Companies pay nearly twice the amount of taxes to the U.S. Treasury as do
foreign – owned companies.
The ownership of a company
determines where the profits go, where most of the taxes are paid, and which
national economy benefits the most. All profits made by American-owned companies
are taxed in the United States, and those taxes are paid to the U.S. Treasury.
Those tax dollars help to
provide all of us with benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, Education,
Highways, Parks, Military, etc. The more revenue we can keep circulating within
our own economy, the stronger our economy will become.
If we are able to collect
more taxes, we reap more benefits for better schools, libraries, and hospitals.
More taxes collected means a stronger military, a healthier health care system,
cleaner parks, better construction and maintenance of our roads, and well
equipped police and fire departments.
The majority of Americans prefer to buy American. Poll after poll, in recent years by Consumer Reports, Zogby, Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal etc. has shown this to be true.
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92% of Americans want country-of-origin labels on meat and produce products. |
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· 68.6% of Americans now check labels for information like manufacturer, nation of origin, ingredients. |
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· 1 of 3 Americans would be willing to pay 4 times as much for American-made toys than foreign made. |
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· 63% were willing to boycott foreign made goods. |
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· 61% of senior citizens indicated a preference to purchase American made automobiles. |
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· 54% of the Americans surveyed said they would pay a higher price for an American-made product rather than pay a cheaper price for a foreign-made product. |
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· 33% of Americans regularly look for the “Made in America/USA “label. |
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· Americans over the age of 60 said they would rather purchase American made products even when they are more expensive than cheaper foreign made products. |
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· 93% of Americans would rather purchase American made products if the quality and price were the same as foreign made products. |
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Buy American Mention of the WeekHow to avoid tainted dog treats from China When Americans talk about their families, health and safety are obvious primary concerns. And for many Americans, pets are family too, so it makes sense to make sure you feed your pet something that’s both safe and won’t cause any long-term ill health effects. Whether you’re a pet owner or not, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the long term affects, including ongoing illnesses and death, on pets in America that consumed tainted pet food from China. If you have a dog, how can you be sure that he’s going to sink his teeth into a treat that is produced in America, processed in America, and packaged in America? A great place that fits that description perfectly is at www.konaschips.com, where you can go for a unique brand of dried chicken jerky treats for dogs. The owners of Kona’s Chips started the brand in 2007 after their beautiful black Pomeranian, Kona, became ill from eating dried chicken breasts imported from China. At six month’s old, Kona had become somewhat addicted to the Chinese-made “chips” (dehydrated chicken breast) when health concerns about the Chinese pet food scare started grabbing national headlines. After Kona’s breeder assured his owners that he would be fine if he hadn’t shown any ill effects from the Chinese chips in the past month, they continued to be included as a part of his diet. Two weeks later, however, Kona became ill, had no energy, and began to refuse all food except for the addictive Chinese-made chips. Fortunately, Kona made a full recovery with a lot of love, patience, and care which included Pedialyte and water forced through a syringe. And of course, no more chips from China. Kona’s owners began the search for an all-American treat that was safe and worry-free - one that was 100 percent “made in USA” from start to finish. Finding none, Kona’s owners began experimenting with and making their own, starting with 100 percent USDA-inspected chicken. In a few months, they had an all-American product Kona was wild about and brought all the assurances of health and safety along with it. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continued to restate their caution to the American public concerning imported pet food as recently as last December (the first caution came in back in September 2007). The FDA told of a potential association between the development of illness in dogs and the consumption of chicken jerky products, which were imported from China and also described as chicken tenders, strips or treats. The FDA also advised that blood tests taken after the onset of illness indicated conditions as serious as kidney failure, and although many pets appear to recover eventually, other reports include dogs that eventually died. Kona's
Chips are safely "Made in America” from 100 percent USDA human-grade
chicken breast with no preservatives. Kona's
Chips use only 100 percent USDA boneless, skinless chicken breast from a
major California poultry producer--the same
chicken that is delivered to grocery stores
and restaurants. Shipping is via USPS
Priority Mail (2-3 business days). |
Buy American Made Mention of the Week
American Made Cutlery and Furniture
If you’ve had trouble finding American-made kitchen cutlery, utensils, bakeware and other accessories at retail stores, maybe you should try shopping online instead. Perhaps the first place you should go to is www.radacutlery.com. Rada Manufacturing Company is American owned, based in Waverly, Iowa, and all of their products are proudly made in the USA. Rada Cutlery has been making fine kitchen knives and utensils since 1948, and all of their products come with a lifetime guarantee. Their cutlery is made of surgical-quality, high-carbon stainless steel, and their environmentally-friendly, cast solid, satin finish aluminum handles make them comfortable and easy to use.
Browse www.radacutlery.com to find paring knives, steak knives, bread knives, meat lovers’ knives, cheese knives, carving forks and ham slicers. And if you’re concerned about keeping your cutlery super sharp, they offer an American-made knife sharpener as well. But we aren’t just talking knives here. Other utensils include vegetable peelers, party spreaders, ice cream scoops, pizza cutters, spatulas, and food choppers. Would you like your knives organized together rather than ordering them individually? Then take a look at Rada Cutlery’s Oak Block Sets. Rada Cutlery also offers American-made stoneware too, including pie plates, loaf pans, and rectangular bakers and baking stones. I have personally ordered several items from Rada Cutlery over the years (I still need to get one of those pizza cutters) including one of their oak block sets, and everything I bought works just as well as it did when it was new. By doing business with companies like Rada Cutlery Manufacturing, you’ll be diversifying your dollars away from the big box retailers and into the hands of smaller businesses that make America work by keeping Americans working. We should make an extra effort to support smaller companies that employ Americans out of the sheer pride they feel from making their wares in the United States. The reason we usually don’t see the products of these smaller companies in retail stores is because they often don’t have the "corporate horsepower" to attract retailers’ neither attention - nor can they sell their products at rock-bottom prices that retailers demand to satisfy their need (or sometimes greed) for increasingly-higher profit margins.
This is at least part of the reason patriotic consumers have trouble finding American-made goods in retail stores. Consider the squabbles a few years back between America’s domestic furniture manufacturers and America’s furniture retailers. Import tariffs were levied against Chinese bedroom furniture to help protect domestic producers, and big furniture retailer chains like Rooms To Go fought it all the way since selling cheaper Chinese furniture means higher profits for them.
One furniture store that deserves a look because 100% of their furniture is made in USA is Home Furniture (www.homefurniturefl.com). I bought a beautiful American-made dinette set, a curio cabinet and a coffee table from there last year. If you thought quality furniture wasn’t made in the United States anymore, check out Home Furniture’s long list of American-made suppliers.
Anyway, the fury over furniture led to laughable rhetoric by big furniture retailers which could care less if American manufacturing workers move from assembly lines to unemployment lines, including claims that import tariffs interfered with their “constitutional right to import.” Luckily that attempt to read (or write) something into our U.S Constitution that isn’t there was promptly dismissed by a judge. You can order from Rada Cutlery online at their storefront at www.radacutlery.com or give them a call at 1-800-311-9691 or 1-319-352-0770.
Buying American is not only about awareness being the key, but also which companies hold the key to what’s important to America.
Andre'
Any questions or comments to the Presidents Corner may be sent via e-mail to president@local36g.org