Felix, many countries are flooding the market with cheap goods like textbooks in order to put American companies out of business. Have you not noticed how many American jobs are disappearing? It's time to focus on retaining those jobs and buy American or it will be your job that's outsourced next. Here's an excerpt from the book I mentioned above:
"We as consumers wield far more control over our own economy than we ever imagined. If every American would change just three simple buying habits from foreign to American, the positive impact on the U.S. economy would be nothing short of enormous. Buying American is more than about borders and NAFTA or the Democrats and Republicans. It's really about us and who we are as a people and how we are able to steer the global economy. So let's step up to the wheel and steer the economy in a direction that best benefits America and her people!
In detail in Part II, Chapter 3 (available to read at www.howamericanscanbuyamerican.com) demonstrates what foreign companies and their investors often do with the dollars that we send them. Many use the money that used to be ours to buy financially struggling or bankrupt American companies and their assets, which further transfers wealth out of the country. When we buy the products of or patronize the services of foreign companies, we many times end up unknowingly subsidizing foreign purchases of our own American factories and businesses. We then become employees of distant foreign bosses who have little or no connection or regard for the American communities where their workers are employed.
Other little-known uses of our tax dollars, made possible only by American workers and American companies, include airport renovations and beach-rehabilitation projects. In May of 2001, President Bush proposed to cut the percentage of federal tax dollars used to fix America's water pollution and eroding coastlines. This was a particularly startling proposal since beach closings increased nearly two-fold from 1999 to 2000 according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, because of sewage pollution. Such proposals are evidence that there aren't enough tax dollars to go around for the benefits Americans have come to take for granted.
In August 2001, just weeks before the September 11 tragedy, Bush proposed charging an additional tax on airline carriers that offered flights at peak travel hours as a way to help pay for upgrades to an outdated air traffic control system. And of course we all know that as a result of September 11, even more government funds (tax dollars) are being used to subsidize airport renovations and security. The point here is that we can help fund the war on terrorism and all other government expenditures, in many cases, without spending an extra dime by making more intelligent consumer purchases.
Our government also subsidizes housing in several ways with our tax dollars. The most popular, of course, is the interest deduction on mortgage loans. This subsidy alone costs the government $55 billion a year. The government also sponsors low-cost loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and allows these two companies to borrow at lower rates so that mortgage interest rates for those who want a piece of the American dream can also borrow at lower rates.
Knowing about the billions of dollars of taxpayer funds that are used to benefit Americans, who would buy foreign-owned Lysol disinfectant instead of Kmart's American Fare disinfectant knowing that less tax dollars would go to pay for funding the cost of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, our children's education, the military, and funding the war on terrorism as a result? Kmart's American Fare even costs less than Lysol. Why not buy American-owned and made Zest soap instead of Japanese-owned, American made Jergens soap? Why not buy American-owned and made Cooper tires instead of Japanese-owned, American made Firestone tires? How about an American-owned and made Kodak disposable camera instead of a foreign owned, American made Fuji disposable camera.
Exactly how much in taxes do we lose each year as a result of buying foreign owned products instead of American owned products? Economist Pat Choate has estimated that the figure is at least $30 billion annually. As our economy has recently slipped from a national surplus to a national deficit, your preferences in consumer purchases could actually keep us in the black and speed up the recovery from the recent recession. American taxpayers often fail to realize that any revenue shortfall in our government will be compensated by an increase in income taxes. The rate at which U.S. citizens are taxed is a direct result of the amount of funds, or lack thereof, the government is able to collect by other means. One such potential source of revenue is import tariffs, but our governmental trade policies have replaced tariffs on imports (an indirect tax) with direct taxes on income.
There really is so much more that can be done than by contacting your representatives in congress. Voicing your concerns to your elected officials is an important part in creating a better America, but we have a much louder voice and can speak much more often with our wallet, checkbook or credit card. The power we have as consumers is many times bigger than politics and partisanism. We only vote as citizens at the polls every two or four years, but we vote as consumers at the stores every day! If we decide as consumers to only support only American companies, to the extent possible, that make things in the USA and leave foreign owned, foreign made products to rot on the shelves, there isn't a trade policy any government can devise to reverse such a united consumer strategy.
Sometimes because of government policies, it makes actually makes sense for American companies to manufacture overseas, and there is often very little we can do about that individually. But what we can do as Americans collectively is learn which American companies are employing the most American workers and support them so that more American workers can stay employed and not become victims of bad government trade policies. As of March 1999, The United Auto Workers (UAW) represented 220,000 employees who work for General Motors and 101,000 employees who work for Ford. German-owned DaimlerChrysler has about 75,000 UAW-represented employees.
As Americans see some of our companies gradually close factories here and move them overseas, many have the opinion that American companies "don't give a hoot" about American workers. But to make that point stick, you would also need to somehow make a convincing argument that foreign companies care about American workers more. American companies don't need to be motivated by American patriotism for American citizens to reap the benefits of their repatriated profits and the taxes paid to America on those profits. Syndicated Columnist Charley Reese put it this way:
"Toyota, public relations notwithstanding, has it's primary loyalty to Japan, as it should. If conditions arise in which Toyota must choose between what's in the best interest of it's American subsidiaries and what's in the best interest of Japan, it will choose Japan. Anyone who loves his own country must necessarily respect others who love their countries."
After Honda decided to shut down one of its five automobile assembly lines in Japan in 1999, they were quick to announce that their roots will surely remain in Japan. And although the United States is seen as increasingly contributing to the growth of the company, Japan will be the main source for ideas, technology and "creative" manufacturing.
Many have argued that we should stress corporate responsibility, but efforts to stress such obligations can only be directed at American companies. Foreign companies owe no allegiance to the United States, so corporate responsibility speeches and ploys do not affect foreign companies. If we are to convince any company to return more of their production to America, it must be an American company since they are based here and owned primarily by American investors. And since American companies benefit America by paying more tax dollars, we need to ensure they get our consumer dollars with which to remain profitable so they can move back to our shores and pay the higher wages required for operating here.
Another benefit of American ownership is that it provides jobs for more Americans than foreign owned companies. For example, if two similar companies- one American owned and the other foreign owned - make similar products in America, the American owned company will generally support more American jobs in two different ways.
First, since American companies have their headquarters based in the United States, they generally employ American workers in such positions as research and development, design, engineering, administration, testing and advertising. Foreign companies, since their headquarters are based overseas, generally employ workers in their home country for these jobs.
For example, in August 1999, American-based disk drive maker Komag, Inc. announced it was laying off 480 manufacturing workers, but the 350 workers in research and development remained employed at the San Jose, California headquarters. No American should be happy to see these manufacturing jobs be sent overseas, but the point here is that there is a difference we can make even in the most unfortunate of circumstances. The difference here between supporting an American-based disk drive maker and a foreign-based disk drive maker is at least 350 jobs. An emphasis should definitely be placed on keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States whenever possible, but there are other American jobs in other professions that can be saved just by buying an American owned company's product, even when none of the products in a given category are American made.
Second, just by supporting an American company, we generally support more American jobs in the parts or parts content sector. Some Japanese cars are manufactured here, and it would seem like buying an American-made Japanese car is a good thing since they have hired American factory workers to assemble their automobiles.
What most Americans don't realize, however, is that same foreign company that manufactures their cars here is causing a lot of other American workers to lose their jobs because they import more of their parts compared to American automobile companies. As a result, many of the American workers who used to make automobile parts for American companies are now being laid off. The problem is that there are a lot more parts workers being laid off than there are manufacturing workers being hired. This means that buying a foreign car made in the USA is a job destroyer rather than a job creator, and is one reason why foreign investment does not reduce imports. The UAW estimated that by the mid-1990s, at least 500,000 American jobs had been eliminated because of foreign owned automobile manufacturers operating in the United States. So by simply buying an American-owned company's product, we often help keep more Americans employed in the parts industry.
American companies also need profits to continue to boost spending for research and development in an increasingly competitive world marketplace. In 1999, for example, U.S. corporations increased spending on research and development over the previous year's level by 9.3%. American companies further increased research and development spending again in 2000 by 10.6%. Such spending makes keeping jobs for American workers at American companies like Komag possible, even if the manufacturing jobs gravitate overseas.
*That's just a brief excerpt...5 chapters are available to read at the website www.howamericanscanbuyamerican.com
P.S. Saving $50 on a textbook today will mean little when you graduate and can only find a job in your field by emigrating to India, because we failed to support our own economic base here at home. The book lists the huge number of once American companies that have been taken over by other countries. Those foreign owners pay less taxes than American owned companies--that dumb arrangement should be changed ASAP. |
