Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Wrap Up a U.S. Job
I was shopping recently for wrapping paper in the Big Box Store. I was looking for some U.S. paper.
When the heads of the purchasing departments of American mega-retailers look to place big factory orders for their store brand products, they look 7,000 miles to the west . They contract with China, a socialist totalitarian state, a state obsessed with control, that keeps wages low to encourage foreign investment. They partner with China, where working conditions have been found to fall ridiculously short of international standards for worker safety, wages, work hours and child labor. They order from a system that buys little of our manufactured product. Could they have placed their factory orders with an American paper mill? Sure they could have, but their competition struck a deal with China and the businessperson’s favorite game is “follow the leader ”, no matter how bad his ideas are. How ironic and hypocritical it is that American business leaders, living and thriving in the free enterprise system, have no problem writing checks to a repressive socialist state when stocking their shelves.
Wrapping paper is made right here in the U.S. Sometimes it’s sold in the same stores that sell the store (China) brands. Mine was made in Cleveland, Ohio by American Greetings. It costs slightly more, but the price included paying a worker a living wage. That worker had money to spend in his community and paid U.S. taxes instead of having to file for unemployment benefits.
When you’re out to pick up some wrapping paper, consider supporting a U.S. manufacturing job. Even better, put that paper around a Channel Lock hand tool “Fiercely made in Meadville, Pennsylvania” or a Mag-Light flashlight, made in Ontario, California. Or wrap up some Black Hills Gold jewelry, made in Rapid City, SD or clothing from Woolrich Woolen Mills of Woolrich, PA, or American Apparel, made in Los Angeles.
Support American manufacturing and give the gift of a job.
