Why Buy American?

The headlines recently are highlighting problems with contaminated products from China and Mattel, Fisher-Price, and Wal-Mart are wasting no time blaming the Chinese manufacturers that are their partners. But why are their producers in China instead of right here in the USA? The simple answer is profits? But why is it more profitable to have a product manufactured in China and shipped to market, mostly here in the USA, but also in Europe?

Low wages are part of the reason that production costs are much lower in China, but there is one other important reason—regulation. Production in the USA is regulated by government for the purpose of protecting both the environment and the consumer. American companies who have off-shored their production have done so in search of both low wages and no regulation. Now, the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost. Could we be naïve enough to hope that the manufacture of some of these products will also come home? We can if we begin to choose products that are made in the USA and become very overt about letting Wal-Mart, Mattel, and Fisher-Price know we are doing so. By buying American, we reduce the fuel cost of getting the product to market, reduce global warming, increase product safety, reduce our trade deficit, and increase employment for Americans.

There may be no need to punish Wal-Mart, Mattel and their ilk for outsourcing, but shouldn’t we reward American companies for keeping production at home?

Some companies that market American-made toys:
FatBrain, Channel Craft,American Plastic Toys, Inc.