Made in the U.S.A.
Global trade is normal part of life. The United States has always exported goods and services to other countries, and Americans have bought imported goods and services in return.
Yet over the past twenty or thirty years, a flood of imported consumer goods has created a huge trade imbalance, with the result being a loss of millions of American jobs. There are many reasons for this: American and multinational corporations make larger profits by outsourcing production to third-world countries; consumers think that they are paying less for products made abroad; and politicians have chosen not to protect American workers from often unfair competition from abroad. If you go into a typical big box store or buy from a mail order catalog today, you'll find that few- if any- of the products available (especially clothing, shoes, kitchen appliances, electronics, bedding, towels, and furniture) are made in the USA.
At this point, it's probably impossible to restore a healthy balance of trade between the United States and other countries. Yet if every consumer living in the United States makes a conscious decision to shift even a tiny amount of our purchases to American-made products, we can eventually make a big difference in the overall domestic employment picture. If one in three Americans simply reallocated $1 of our daily purchases, (i.e. spending $1 less on foreign-made goods and $1 more on American-made goods), it would add up to $365 a year per person, for a total of $36.5 billion. It has been estimated that even this modest reallocation of purchasing power could help create some 912,500 new domestic jobs paying $40,000 a year.
Here are a few links that offer information about American-made products and where to buy them.
Product search engine and database.
American-made products available online.
An ongoing feature including a coast-to-coast database of products being made in the USA.
A new website listing products made in the United States, with a special link to American-made toys and games.
A website listing thousands of products made in the USA.
A listing of USA-based companies, organized by product.
A New York State-based store selling products 100% made in the USA.
