Why Buy American Made Products? Top 10 Reasons to Shop at Home |

Why Buy American Made Products? Top 10 Reasons to Shop at Home

| By Roy Rasmussen | Category: Made In America

Why buy American made products and services? In an age of NAFTA, Toyota, Walmart, and outsourcing, and a time when money is tight, many people are asking why they shouldn’t just buy the cheapest product regardless of its country of origin. Some economists and news commentators have even marshaled arguments in favor of this position.

Advocates of buying U.S. made products have responded with a number of strong counter-arguments for shopping at home. Their reasons range from pragmatism to patriotism to legal and moral arguments. Here are a number of reasons that have been advanced to buy products made in America.

1. Buying American Strengthens the Manufacturing Backbone of the Economy

In 2010 the backbone of the American economy, the manufacturing industry, dropped to second place in global production for the first time in 110 years, falling behind vs. China. Restoring the American economy to health means rebuilding the manufacturing industry. This will require more sales both domestically and abroad. More manufacturing sales means more money going into the domestic economy, more American jobs at higher wages, more investment in U.S. business, more tax revenue for the U.S. government, and less deficit spending.

2. Buying American Creates Domestic Jobs

During the recent economic downturn, millions of Americans in manufacturing and other industries lost their jobs to cheap labor from foreign competitors. Buying American products and services creates domestic jobs and puts fellow Americans back to work.

3. Buying American Strengthens State Economies

The manufacturing industry is one of the three largest segments of forty state economies, the second-largest in nine states, the largest in ten, and the largest throughout the Midwest region. By strengthening the manufacturing industry in these states, buying American strengthens state economies, the underpinning of the national economy.

4. Buying American Counters the Trade Deficit

Manufacturing exports are vital to America’s balance of trade, and historically one of the principle reasons Americans enjoy such a high standard of living. One of the big reasons we have slipped behind China in global manufacturing is because we have increasingly consumed more exports from China and other foreign producers than we have exported abroad. This in turn has helped generate the huge $497.8 billion trade deficit now threatening our economic survival. Buying American helps counter the trade deficit by recapturing our market share from foreign competitors.

5. Buying American Promotes American Innovation

The manufacturing industry has historically driven American innovation, the engine of economic growth. New technologies in cutting-edge fields emerge when business invests in research and development. Over the past few decades America has allowed research and development to migrate to other countries, which have been pulling ahead of us in key industries that promise to be on the forefront of future economic growth. Buying American brings that growth home by promoting American innovation.

6. American Products Are Better Made

From the consumer perspective, another reason to buy American made products is that American products are better made. America has long decades of experience with sophisticated methods of quality control. Our cheaper competitors lack this same experience and level of commitment to quality. They may be able to produce cheaper goods, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

7. American Products Are Safer

American products are also safer than the products of cheaper competitors. U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission records show that nine out of ten products recalled every month for safety reasons are made in China. Many of these dangerous products are children’s toys. There’s more at risk than money when you buy the cheapest product you can find.

8. Buying Cheap Foreign Products Promotes Sweatshops

It’s not just Americans who pay the price for cheap labor abroad. Foreign workers slave in sweatshops for long hours in unsafe conditions at low wages in order to create the cheap products their employers dump here. When Americans buy these cheap products, we are subsidizing these sweatshop conditions abroad, forcing foreign workers into these jobs while we take good jobs away from our own neighbors.

9. Buying American Guards the National Defense

During World War II Britain would have lost if America had not been there to help them finish the job, because Britain lacked the manufacturing power to fight the Nazis unaided. It’s vital to our national defense that industries and jobs key to our defense remain as much as possible in the hands of Americans. When we allow foreign investors to control key industries, we are putting ourselves at their mercy should relations turn hostile. When we outsource key defense jobs, we are opening ourselves up to the risk of industrial espionage. When we keep these jobs and industries at home, we control our own destiny and maintain responsibility for managing our own safety. Buying American guards the national defense.

10. Buying American Is the Law for Government Agencies

For this reason and for economic reasons, buying American is the law for government agencies employing defense contractors and other government contractors. The Buy American Act of 1933, the Buy America Act of 1983, and the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 all require government agencies to follow a procurement preference for American-made materials under specified conditions. This is how important the U.S. government considers it to buy American.