It may not be pretty, but it’s always interesting to live where I do. Southeastern Michigan in general, and the Detroit area specifically, is an area where the constant hue and cry is “Buy American.” This is because every other person and his uncle has a tie to the auto industry. The “other” major employer in this state is the government, most of whom are members of one union or another.Union members appear to be smug. They look down their collective noses at you if you’re an employer who doesn’t maintain a union shop. We don’t have a union here at our business, but we’re small; most of our people work part-time and have union memberships at their “real” jobs.Before you think, “That’s right; she’s the man who wants to keep her workers down,” I have to confess: in another incarnation I’ve been a card-carrying union member myself. In hindsight, I don’t see much of a need for belonging to unions. They may have had their place in history, but I firmly believe society has outgrown them.
In the first instance, we were fairly well paid and well taken care of. I believe we would have been even without a union. In the other case, my membership didn’t help me at all when my boss began to harass me. My union sold my soul and my lost grievance to management so they could win another grievance for someone else. (Schmucks.)Every so often in Motown, the Detroit News will give James Hoffa, Jr. editorial space. Just like his dad, in his editorials, Hoffa Junior touts the benefits of belonging to the union. He also uses this prime space to urge anyone with reading eyeballs to buy American. His best editorial treatises come right around the time of major holidays when consumers are spend happy. He admonishes one and all to keep America working by making consumer choices based on the union label.I have no argument with the man when it comes to his beliefs. If he thinks buying a Big Three car or anything else “Made in the USA” will keep the country from economic collapse, he’s entitled to his opinion. However, I believe his utopian ideal of buying American is just that – a utopian ideal.As a consumer who lives in the United States, I believe I have the freedom to buy from anyone I want, and I normally do. I like to think of myself as an informed shopper. For example, I drive a Prius. I didn’t choose this car just to be the thorn in the side of some cranky union member. (You know the type. They’re the ones who will key your car just because it’s Japanese.) No, I actually researched the different types of hybrid technology. I gave the Big Three a chance and still came back to Toyota. (At the time, GM’s hybrid made no sense and was only available in a pick up truck. Ford was using Toyota’s first generation technology for their hybrid.)Recently, I purchased an electric lawnmower. I didn’t want to buy gasoline and feather the nest of some terrorist-supporting royal family in a far away oil producing country. I also wanted to be environmentally conscious. Other minor perks to the mower was that it’s far quieter than my vacuum cleaner and easy to clean up. On the bonus side, my mower is made in Vermont.At the grocery store, I make every attempt to buy locally, but it isn’t easy. Most of the good stuff is imported from somewhere else. I can tell you from personal experience that Michigan wine isn’t going to hold its own against a similar one from Napa Valley, Australia, France, Italy or Spain. I’m not going to drink it, much less buy it, just because it’s made here. Much of our produce, especially during the winter months, comes from Chile or Canada. Should I give up fresh fruits and vegetables just because it wasn’t grown in this country or this state?In this global economy, even the Big Three would be hard pressed to manufacture a car using strictly American-made parts from start to finish because so many of the products we use on a day-to-day basis aren’t produced here. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at this short list I compiled during a slow day at the office. These are just some of the items we use for our business. Office supplies of this type are probably used by automakers in some form or another.Copiers: My copy machine (a behemoth Lanier) was made in Japan. The box of toner cartridges for this machine says it is “assembled in the US using imported products.” The staple cartridges this machine uses are also made in Japan.Fax machine/printers: Our Hewlett-Packard printers and fax machines are made in China. The certified HP refill toner cartridges are manufactured in Japan. We all know where the technical help is located.Typewriters: Some people don’t use them anymore, but we do. Our Swintec typewriter was made in Japan. Nukote ribbons and lift-off tape are made in China.Computers: While our computers are assembled locally, the parts inside are made in other countries. The LED monitors we use (JTX) are made in China.Calculator: The Sharp calculator on my desk was made in China.Other items I inventoried include Staples brand staples (China), blank Sony CDs (Taiwan), a Rolodex business card file (China), Papermate pens (Mexico), binder clips (China), Avery labels (Mexico), Liquid Paper dryline (Germany), and Swingline electric stapler (China). Staples brand file folders are made in Mexico, but Staples brand paper clips are made in the US. However, my Westcott ruler is made in China.My little inventory doesn’t even scrape the surface. Much of the electronic chips, paints, and many other items are made in other countries. In addition, the Big Three imports workers from other countries to work here, either on a limited or continual basis. Why not employ a homegrown, born in the USA citizen?This whole buying American sentiment leads me to exploring other tangents. Do we buy American cars and trucks if they’re made in Canada or Mexico? Many Big Three manufacturers have plants in those two places. Aren't they foreign countries? Do we stay away from foreign nameplates, even if hard working Americans make the vehicle in Oregon or Tennessee?While we’re on the subject of buying American, what about those who are American who happen to have a job selling highly un-American products? Do we decide not to patronize them, even though they are citizens? Do we penalize them because their products aren’t 100% American?
Article comments
1 - Alesssandro
Fantastic piece.
Where does that leave us Canadians?
Seriously folks, I don't think Americans realize the power the European Union has on American business now. It's not as simple as "Buy American" indeed. You may be buying an American name or brand familiar to North Americans but many companies are owned by Europeans now.
Consider:DKNY (France), Sunglass Hut, Brooks Brothers, Case Tractors (Italy), Hellman's, Pennzoil, Vaseline, Dove (Netherlands), New York Post, LA Dodgers (England), Taster's Choice (Switzerland), Plymouth Dodge Chrysler (Germany).
All revered American brands in the hands of the EU.
This has given leverage to the EU (so determined to challenge American power to the point I fear it may go overboard and be counter productive) to be able to thwart American activity both politically and economically on the world stage.
This is new for the U.S. and NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS.
At this point, Americans depend (or are addicted to because they have no solutions?) too much on foreign investment. I'm an optimist so I think the U.S. is too diverse and innovative to stay sleeping at the switch but for now, it's time to at least discuss this matter without any anti-EU slogans or the requisite hyperbole used to rally the folks.
2 - Joanne Huspek
Alessandro, you are so right. I didn't even talk about those companies that we think of as distinctly "American" but are actually owned by foreign countries. The unions constantly ignore that fact though.
3 - Alesssandro
Unions are counter-productive now. They are a drain on progress.
4 - Juliann Mitchell, PhD
Very interesting article, Joanne. Actually it's quite scary how little is manufactured in America these days.
5 - Diane
I've tried to talk about this to a lot of my co-workers, friends, neighbors etc. They just choose not to hear it. I live in SE Michigan as well. The Union Mentality proliferates! And, they keep buying those huge ass trucks and SUV's, as well. I really don't get it.
6 - Purple Tigress
This is nothing new. When people were complaining about Japanese and other Asian countries and Japan-bashing was popular, no one complained about the UK or the Netherlands.
Yellow perilism or Asian ethnics dying because of it isn't new either. Remember Vincent Chin?
For most Asian Americans, he's hard to forget.
7 - STM
"All revered American brands in the hands of the EU."
And all revered Australian brands - including Vegemite (Kraft) and Arnott's Biscuits - in the hands of American companies. For years ...
Buying Australian is almost impossible, if you want the icon brands.
Basically, you're buying American.
However, on a related note: the drop in the US dollar has had one good effect here (and no doubt for cash-strapped US farmers) ... American fruits are being sold out-of-season by the boatload in Oz.
My wife has been buying up punnets of American strawberries and cherries at the supermarket.
The cherries are good. We usually only get them over the extended Christmas/New Year period, as that's midsummer here, so it's nice to have 'em twice a year at a reasonable price.
8 - Joanne Huspek
It's amazing how you can get "our" cherries, but we can't get them, or they're $10.99 a pound when they are around.
But, I'll take a caseload of Barossa wine over a case of Michigan cherries any day.
9 - STM
Just learned today the iconic Aussie Victa mower - the propeller bladed, petrol-powered, hand-guided mower that spawned a million copies and which Aussies just have to have because it's the only thing that can cut the tough kikuyu grass that thrives on this continent - has been sold off this week to an American company named Briggs and Stratton.
Another Aussie icon bites the dust. What's next, the houswives' friend from the 1950s, the Hills rotary clothes hoist?
That's probably long gone anyway.
Milo (health food of a nation and the best chocolate malt drink ever) then? No, Nestle's got that already.
10 - STM
Joanne, the American cherries and strawberries are costing us seven bucks or so here for a small punnet, which must be about half a pound. Given that they're probably being airfreighted or shipped chilled all the way across the Pacific, that's not bad.
The strawberries are on a par with Aussie ones, but I think the cherries are a bit better than ours, although I suspect how it works in Oz is the same as it does in the US - the best ones are exported. A punnet of big, juicy US-grown cherries I was hooking into last night had no spoiled ones, so it's obvious we are getting the good stuff.
Both do taste a bit different though, and that's not my imagination. I'm sure the soil in which things are grown makes a difference to how stuff tastes.
Agree with you about the Barossa wines. But you should try some reds of various types from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, which I know are exported by the boatload, and there are some good chardonnays and pinot grigios (pinot gris in the US?) from that region also. The Margaret River region in Western Australia also produces some great wines. The labels will tell you where the wines were produced. I think the WA wines taste a bit like Californian wines.
If you like beer though, don't drink Foster's - it's cat's piss. Actually, cat's piss probably tastes better.
11 - Dr Dreadful
I'm currently working my way through a bag of cherries from our local farmers' market that taste absolutely perfect.
For fruits and vegetables, I think, it's best to get them in season, and from as close to the source as you can. That's why farmers' markets and similar setups usually have great stuff.
Just because you can go to the supermarket and buy strawberries in September doesn't mean you should. They're not going to taste all that great.
As for wine, Stan, it's well known that you guys keep the best stuff for yourselves. (So do the French.) I have this on good authority from both my tastebuds - the Aussie wines we can get over here don't hold a candle to the ones we bought when we were there - and from a tour guide at one of the Hunter Valley wineries we went to, who was too much of an arrogant young berk to have been lying.
12 - Joanne Huspek
The Dr. is right. We can't get the good wines from Napa Valley, much less from Australia. The state has a tight rein on the distribution of alcohol, and that includes wine.
However, if you can think of a way to do it, I may be able to parlay a trade of Michigan cherries for a case of those Hunter Valley wines. I've never heard of them, but they sound yummy!
13 - Dr Dreadful
Personally I find Central Coast wines much superior to anything from Napa. Of course, that could be because again, the best stuff typically comes direct from the wineries, and Paso Robles is a two-hour drive from me whereas Napa is four!
Our local university also churns out some decent fermented grape on occasion. It's actually the only university in the country with its own winery. The student enologists have been known to win the odd medal...
I suspect we may have finished off all the Hunter Valley stuff, I'm afraid, Joanne, although there may be a hoarded bottle of port somewhere...
14 - Ruvy
I'm going to get back to the topic of unions here. Because there are some points to be raised.
Point 1. My daddy was a union organizer - he organized at least two locals. His proudest possessions were his American citizenship papers, Robert's Rules of Order and the union constitution - until he got his heart attack and the Teamsters cashiered his pension and pocketed it. The union constitution got tossed. I still have the Roberts Rules of Order, even though they are outdated by at least 40 years.
Point 2. Union organizer that he was, my father was always acutely aware that the business he worked for had to survive, union or no union - or there wouldn't be a job. This attitude he passed on to me - which is why I never viewed the Gompers basic rule for workers - "more" - as having any meaning. It took an industry collapse to get American union leaders to finally figure out that the name of the game was control of the board of directors, not mooching for money every two or three years. American union leaders still have lots to learn from German union leaders, who always focused on controlling the company, rather than squeezing the boss.
Point 3. My wife, when we lived in America, was a federal employee. It was her union that won her a bunch of bennies - like, among other things, oodles of hours of sick leave. She hated the union dues. But I kept pointing out to her all those sick hours on her biweekly pay stub and reminding her where they came from - the efforts of the union and pockets of the American taxpayer.
15 - Joanne Huspek
Ruvy, there was a time and a place for unions to organize. In recent times, they've come off as spoiled brats, garnering plenty of benefits for their rank and file but being too rigid and unbending with management (the manufacturing unions anyway) to work with them on keeping jobs here in this country. You can't blame the companies for wanting to cut their costs, and if taking their business elsewhere accomplishes that, I guess that's what they need to do.
My point is that "Buy American" is a misnomer. It's a global market now, thanks to the skew in the cost of living in other countries and NAFDA.
By the way, the union that effectively screwed me was a federal government union. I'll always think that they're schmucks.
16 - Ruvy
I'm not arguing with your essential points here - except one. In a global market, the working stiff, whatever the industry is, needs some protection from the competition that Chinese prisoners, or cheap Indian, Thai, Indonesian or even Israeli labor offers. That protection is to be found from a union.
Unions are what you make them. A bunch of sheeple get treated like sheep - they get led to the slaughter. A mob controlling a union is nothing but a mob, not a union, and the members learn omertà - or they suffer. If control of the company is beyond you, or you think it is beyond you, you shouldn't work for that company.
But the key point here is that the way a union protects its members most effectively is by being part and parcel of the management - and by seeing to it that the worker shares in the company's profit, as well as getting a salary that he can live on.
AMERICAN UNIONS HAVE YET TO LEARN EVEN THIS LESSON.
In Israel, unions were stripped of their power when the National Workers Union spun off their enterprises into private fiefdoms. We have capitalism and worker exploitation run wild here. And the reason for all of this was that the Labor Party abandoned their charge of protecting workers.
SO ISRAELI UNIONS HAVE BECOME ARROGANT FIEFDOMS OF UNION "MANAGEMENT".
The issue is not "this is not the place and time" for protecting workers - nor is it the propaganda line of "buying American" - all this is garbage. The issue is that without real protection, workers everywhere, not just in America, will be exploited like dogs. And this protection is provided by a properly organized union.
17 - blokesablogin
Joanne- I have lived long enough in America to understand why things got expensive. Until the 70's America had a lot of manufacturing. Even today, my grandmother cherishes a cotton "sari" made and printed in America from that era! It is unfortunate that the insurance companies with liability and "assurance" of 100% customer satisfaction has led to the demise of American industry. NOONE can be 100% satisfied!! This is the root cause of it- not global economy.
18 - Alessandro
Now I know how the Florentines felt when their textile monopoly was challenged by the Flemish way back in the 15th century.
19 - Tena Wells
I agree with the union opinion but not the rest. Buy American is not limited to cars. If you think you are free to act and buy whatever, made wherever, why don't you think ahead to the reaction it will cause? While you are smelling your farts and driving your Prius, did you think about how to dispose of all the hybrid batteries?