To end what I will call a most excellent new year’s adventure, I had a quite lengthy conversation on world affairs with a polar opposite. It was with the cousin of my best friend and her self-proclaimed right answers to all of America’s problems got under my skin. Although our conversation (more like argument) ranged from meritocracy in military leadership to toilets being a basic commodity, I will be focusing on the most irritating subject. Her ideas on the American economy and solutions to our current problems boggled my mind. Behaving like a true Fox news reporter, she would listen to the first four syllables of my response, shake her head, then utter repeatedly “you’re so naïve and wrong!” So bare with me, this is my week long stewed response to her ideas.
My friends cousin, let’s call her Alice, took one observation that she had made and spun into a basic solution. Alice had come to notice that a majority of product that can be purchased in America are made in other countries. From this she concluded that since all of these products are made by non-Americans, that means the money is leaving the country as well as takes jobs away from Americans. So Alice’s big solution to the current economic decline and the observations of the economy she had made is to only buy American goods. If we only by products in America, we would not only solve the unemployment problem, we would stimulate the American economy to the extreme.
While this might seem like a great solution to the economic crisis we have been stuck in for the past two years, in actuality there are a multitude of problems with it. The first problem with this solution is with the made in America products that are supposed to save our economy; the only requirement that needs to be met to be able to slap a “made in America” label on a product is that the final process is done in America. All of the components, parts, and materials can be made in foreign countries, as long as they are put together in America. For instance a broom might have a big label on it that says “made in America” but really the handle was made in Sweden, the bristles in Indonesia and the head in China. By having someone but those three components together in the USA that Broom Company can label their product proudly produced in America. Just it says it’s American, doesn’t mean it’s American (unless it’s PBR).
The second problem facing Alice’s simple solution is capacity. When considering the vast range and amount of products that Americans consume on a daily basis, it is an impossibility for us to support ourselves. The 303 million Americans present and accounted for in the country use a disgusting amount of products everyday; think of every wrapper, drop of gas, door, piece of clothing, etc that you have used today. Someone has made every single little thing that you touch, eat, watch and enjoy. Considering how much Americans use every day, it would be impossible for us to make all we “need”. The only way that we could possibly buy only American products would be to drastically alter the way America consumes. Honestly this would be the greatest thing that we could ever do for the country; not only would it help the economy, it would also help diplomacy and the environment. But unfortunately being the good Americans we are, greed and decadence run through are veins. The American appetite will not be curbed until a catastrophic act occurs. So Alice’s solution would obviously not work because of the problem of capacity.
Lastly, Alice’s idea runs into the problem of cost. All of those delightful little products we enjoy on a daily basis are cheap for a reason. Foreign countries unfortunately don’t have strong workers rights in place, opening the door to employee oppression. So companies operating in “developing countries” are able to pay employees a dollar for 14 hours worth of grueling work. This is why all of our shoes, toys and other assorted goods are so affordable. While I strongly disagree with the alienation and oppression of these workers, sadly this is how our globalized economy. Now let’s look at what would happen if all of these tedious, dirty jobs had to be done by Americans; first off most Americans would refuse to do the work that is done by these foreign workers claiming its beneath them. Secondly a lot of the jobs that would need to be done are too hazardous to pass the requirements for workers in America. But even if we put aside our pompous nature and the dangerousness of the jobs needed to be done, it still wouldn’t work. The amount of compensation that would have to be granted to American workers would be exponentially more expensive than paying foreign workers. For example Nike might only have to pay an Indonesian worker a dollar a day to make shoes, while they would have to pay an American 64 dollars a day to do the same job. So instead of your new Nikes being $85 they would probably end up costing $400 dollars. But this would not be limited to Nikes, it would involve every single product in America if we follow Alice’s plan. The price to properly compensate all of the Americans making the products we use would drive the prices up so high that no one could afford anything.
Wow, that was one hell of a rant! But I feel that I have some good counterpoints to her solution; at the very least they are questions that need to be answered. Because of our over decadence and prissy mentality of not wanting to get our hands dirty we are stuck with the economic crisis we have. If we could learn to live without all of the pleasures we have become accustomed too, we could ultimately climb out of this hole and develop better lives for the workers we have oppressed for a century. Unfortunately this is a dream, a dream that will be unlikely to be fulfilled.
I may be a dreamer but I’m not the only one, maybe someday you can join us and the world can be as one.
Ben
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