MAKING OUR OWN STUFF I often wonder. Do we still actively manufacture anything at all in the United States?
You,certainly,must have asked yourself the same question several times in recent years as it has become more and more evident that very few of the things we buy are "Made in U.S.A." We all seem to know this is a transition which has been taking place, and yet, no one, it appears, has moved in any significant manner to either stop it...or to, at least, slow it down a bit. In fact those activities as have been taken seem to be working the other the way around by encouraging even more offshore manufacturing.
Somehow, it seems totally wrong that we should permit,and even encourage such a transition when our economy has been suffering serious problems. I remember when I had close friends who worked in plants where items were actually made;finished products for the general market. No more. Other, than some small artisan-type operations, I can't think of very many people I know now who make products that will be sold locally. Food products, perhaps, and related short-term items, maybe. Drugs, chemicals, beverages and other such lines, but those lists are shortening year-by-year. Notice how much of our Christmas-time candy items bear “Made in China” stickers or tags.
I have two pair of my favorite brand of shoes. It is a well-known name brand among shoes and I have the interesting information to pass along to others: "My shoes are not made in China!" So many styles of footwear for Americans of all ages are now coming to us from China that many assume they all do. Not so. My shoes are not made in China. They are made in India and have been for several years. They remain leading “American“ brand, too. Check your wardrobe. If you are in the same situation in which I find myself to be, you have several sport shirts made in Guatemala, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong - some from nations you may never even heard of and did not know existed! You are wearing clothing items from Malaysia in a plaid design a Scottish Highlander would wear with pride. Your heavy, quilted jacket is made in Bangladesh.
At the breakfast table you will stay closer to home because of the perishable nature of foods, but aseptic treatment processes are moving in on us speedily so the shelves displayed be doubled as far as food supplies are concerned and foreign markets will be able to compete as longer periods of shelf life making previously perishable food products obtainable over a extended times.
Retailers here in the United States,for a time, seriously tired to re-build some of the American capability for manufacturing, but,one-by-one, they have all more-or-less given in to reality and now make no pretense of offering "Made in U.S.A " products. We have,in effect, priced ourselves out of our own markets largely because we cannot control higher labor costs.
We are buyers, now rather than sellers. We depend more and more on others to supply our common, everyday requirements and this is going to have its long-range affect on many aspects of our lives the deeper we become involved.
A. L. M. January 3, 2006 [c556wds]
