Made In the USA

We the People, in order to form a more perfect union have allowed our politicians and our corporations to drive us into near public and private bankruptcy.This was done in a myriad of ways from high domestic tax rates and tax incentives to send our manufacturing overseas, to allowing banks
to make fraudulent housing loans and everything in between. There are many factors for the economic crisis we are in, but the number one factor is: We the People.
As a boy in the '60s and '70s and a young man in the '80s I used to see advertisements and signs reading "buy American" to me those seemed vague and meaningless, after all who wouldn't rather buy American as opposed to that "cheap foriegn crap,"? But now as a man approaching his middle ages in 2011 I fully understand the sentiment behind the "Buy American" addage. I fully understand the economic toll on a nation refuses to buy its own products and merchandise.

At this point in time we have corporations posting record profits while at the same time we have records numbers of jobless, and homeless people in our country, and it is because we allowed it to happen, firmly believing all the while that it couldn't happen to us.

 In 1994 NAFTA was hailed as a good thing by both sides of the political spectrum because it would allow US corportations to manufacture some of their goods in Canada and Mexico at a lower cost and bring up the standard of living in those countries, while at the same time creating better paying jobs in the US. The very next year in 1995 the WTO was created with politicians handing us the same lines. Have they been successes? Let's look at the balance of trade with our 15 closest trading partners to find out, negative trade balances (trade deficits) will be shown in red, and positive trade balances (trade surpluses), will be shown in black. The numbers posted reflect January 2010- November 2010 balance of trade as the December 2010 numbers have yet to be posted on the US Census website.

#1- Canada              $23,871,200,000
#2 China                 $252,384,000,000
#3 Mexico                $61,642,900,000
#4 Japan                   $53,902,300,000
#5 Germany              $31,214,400,000
#6 United kingdom         $949,000,000
#7 South Korea           $9,316,300,000
#8 France                  $10,739,700,000
#9 Taiwan                    $9,257,300,000
#10 The Netherlands  $14,532,100,000
#11 Brazil                  $10,738,500,000
#12 Italy                    $13,063,000,000
#13 Singapore           $10,377,000,000
#14 Malyasia             $11,079,400,000
#15 Ireland                $24,012,000,000
Total imbalance with our top 15 trading partners= $465,784,800,000

To me our trade imbalance with our largest trading partners is both alarming, and unnacceptable. Our politicians have failed to act as our country has been led down a path toward third world status, happily supporting the special interests who own them, and it's high time We the People act on our own to fix the mess that we willingly allowed our politicians and corporations to create for us. There is one simple but powerful way to bring about the change so desperately needed. We the People must spend our hard earned dollars on good that are manufactured in America and display the words "Made in the USA" somewhere on their lables or their packaging. If We the People rise up and only buy American made products we will force manufacturers to hire more Americans to keep up with demand, it will spur more entrepenuers to invest  in American markets, and it will have a snowball effect on our economy. By refusing to buy foriegn made products we will force our politicians and our corporations to make and keep jobs in the USA. We the people have the power.
Buy American
Let Freedom Ring

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