I also buy some imported products instead of American ones due to cost and more often, due to availability. I do however pay extra for American products sometimes, but there are lots of things I pay extras for just to support my country. I have never owned a pair of foreign made shoes or boots.
I suspect you are not a billionaire bragging about having $ 10 Billion striving to make even more. Nor are you a person trying to convince people how you love America and want to be President because of that love while you ignore American manufactures and make them compete with China and Mexico for the clothing you sell so you can make a larger profit. Building materials are the same. Profit can be made using American made goods, just not as much profit. Guys Trump like are just greedy. He insists on make big profits even after he has tucked away billions and has become obscenely wealthy.
usalovelist.com/list/
Why the heck would I pay $150 for a pair of shoes, when I can pay $45 for a perfectly good pair that's imported?
No, I'm not a billionaire, and what difference does that make?
Poor people can be smart with money, but billionaires are obligated blow money on over priced goods, in order to meet some meaningless arbitrary version of "patriotic" that no one else subscribes to?
As for ignoring manufacturing.... US manufacturing doesn't need you to pay attention to it, brother.
Manufacturing Sector: Real Output
Last year was a record year in US manufacturing. This year will likely be a record year (at the pace of production thus far).
Manufacturing is doing just fine.
Now manufacturing jobs are not doing fine. Unions have driven up wages, and benefits, so that it is no longer economical to build stuff with US labor. So those jobs are not coming back no matter what you do.
The only way you are going to get those jobs to come back, is to repeal the minimum wage, repeal the benefit laws and mandates, and cut regulations on employers. Otherwise you are trying to catch a wave on the ocean using your hands. It will slip through your fingers.
Take Apple Iphones in China. The only reason there are hundreds of full time jobs in China, is because it's economical and practical.
If you force Apple to make Iphones domestically, not only would the price go up, but it still wouldn't create hundreds of jobs. Instead of having them built by hand, they would be built by machine.
And the bottom line is, most outsourcing is done because the other option is to go out of business.
My company used to make our controller boards in house. Now they are outsourced over seas. If we didn't do that, we'd be out of business.
The idea that you know the reasons why someone somewhere did something.... is not true. You don't know. I'm sure someone looking at our company would complain "They did it for large profits!", when in reality it was either outsource or close the company.
"The only way you are going to get those jobs to come back, is to repeal the minimum wage, repeal the benefit laws and mandates, and cut regulations on employers. Otherwise you are trying to catch a wave on the ocean using your hands. It will slip through your fingers."
Really? Your solution is to make our workers stoop to the horrid conditions of Chinese laborers and the like? Repeal the minimum wage? Are you ******* joking? Yeah, bring jobs back so people can work at 3$ an hour! I know a way to bring jobs back, give benefits to companies that don't go overseas. What regulations? Hm, let's compare: I assume you want to remove overtime, safety regulations, maybe add some suicide nets, after all, we simply need to emulate China. LOL.
First, I never suggest that was "my" solution. I don't actually know what I would do.
But the answer to the goal of getting manufacturing jobs back, that's it. It's not "my" solution, or 'your' solution. It's *THE* solution. 1 + 1 = 2. "so that's your solution??? Two is your solution?" No, it is
THE solution.
As long as the cost of labor is high enough that replacing people with robots and machines is practical and economical, then they would do it.
You are not going to get companies to come back and higher hundreds of workers to assemble Iphones in the US, like they do in China, until the cost of labor is low enough that they can afford to do that. If you make US labor affordable, they will gladly put people on the assembly line. How do you make US labor affordable? Cut taxes, cut mandates, cut benefits, lower the minimum wage, and reduce regulations.
If you want US manufacturing jobs, that's what you have to do. Is that what we should do? I don't know. But that's the answer to the equation, just like Two is the answer to one plus one.
Give benefits to companies that don't go overseas? First off, last year was a record year in US manufacturing. We're not losing manufacturing overseas. We're losing jobs... yes. Jobs are being replaced by robots and machines.
So even if you bring overseas manufacturing to the US, by giving out some "benefits" to companies.... yeah, they might bring back some productions, but the jobs are not coming back. If the Iphones are ever made in the US, they will not be made by hundreds of workers like in China. They will be made by machines and robots.
Now I don't know what you mean by 'benefits to companies', but it sounds like a fantastic corporate welfare programs, and I'm sure the fat cats in the companies will love you for it. Solyndra sure did. But you people always claim to be against that.... not that what you say and what you do ever match up.
Lastly, the suicide nets..... long time lie of the left. You don't have a clue do you.
Reality Check: The BBC did a documentary on the real reasons for the suicide nets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rtbrf
Guangzhou - China's migrant metropolis - 29 December 2011
The left likes to just 'make up' reasons for why other people do things. You see suicide nets in China, and without bothering to investigate, just make up that it's because of evil capitalists or whatever dumb reason you want.
This documentary shows the real reasons. In china people who move from one area of China to another, are called 'migrants'. Under Mao, a system was put in place, where you could only move from one area to another, if you have a resident permit.
Without this residency permit, you can't rent, or buy, a home. You can't get health care, even if you have money. You can't send your children to school. You can't even buy food in some cases.
At the same time this is going on, China has only allowed companies to operate in 'economic zones'. As a result there are no jobs moving out into other areas where these migrants live.
So there are no jobs where these people live, and yet they have no permit to move where the jobs are. So they have to move to where the jobs are anyway, but they are stuck living at the factories in boxes, and they can't have their family with them, and can't buy property, and their kids can't go to school, and they can't go to the hospital...
Because of government controls, and regulations, people are left with suicide as the only way out. If it was free-market capitalism, they could buy property when they needed to. If it was free-market capitalism, companies could move to where the labor was, thus not needing to force people to move.
If it wasn't socialized, no one would care if a migrant came, as long as they paid for the services they used. The BBC interviewed city officials, and their reason for keeping the residency permit system in place was... they can't afford to provide for all the migrants. If there was no socialized system, they wouldn't have to.