With the holidays upon us, somber as they may be for many, it is a time to celebrate the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, ect. This often entails some small amount of shopping, and the giving of gifts to those we love and those in need.
Part of resisting a rigged, corrupt system involves making conscious decisions on how we spend our hard earned money. We have been trained to consume, dispose and consume, ad infinum. At the same time, faced with increased downward pressure on income, the public increasingly demanded cheaper and cheaper goods in order to maintain a comfortable (if not unsustainable) lifestyle. Corporations gave us just what we wanted, with an unfortunate caveat.
Cheap came with a price. In order to offer goods at cut-throat bargain prices, companies purposefully offshored factories and services to areas of the world with cheap, exploitable labor.
U3 unemployment numbers remain high at around 10%. The gap between the wealthy and middle class and poor is at levels not seen since the Great Depression. Millions of good paying union jobs have been eliminated through offshoring and automation. Millions of other good paying office jobs have been outsourced and eliminated through technological advances. We are seeing vast amounts of people lose their jobs, retirements, and homes due to the sustained lack of good paying jobs. People are struggling to get by with less and less, with fewer employment opportunities.
Consumers unwittingly support the same system that encourages offshoring and outsourcing by spending money on goods made in countries with ample access to cheap labor, sometimes including child, prison, and slave labor.
We have been eating our own, in order stay afloat.
So what can we possibly do to help turn our economy around, and reintroduce sanity to the national discussion?
We can start voting with our dollars.
Abandoned Factory in Atlanta, GA
photo by phreakmonkey
The wealthy elite would have us believe that decaying factories, like the one pictured above, are representative of American industry as a whole. In some ways, they may be right.
The fact is that we do still manufacture and produce tangible goods in America. The problem is that we've been taught to go for the quick kill.. to value convenience and disposability over thoughtful consideration and thrift. This attitude has been successfully used to marginalize and eliminate hundreds of thousands of small businesses, mom & pop shops, and family farms (and millions of good paying jobs) by corporate America.
Hope is not lost.
We are not powerless. We can resist. We can fight back, peacefully, where it hits the system hardest.
Here's how.
With the exception of most consumer electronics, just about any product you can think of is still made in America. You just won't find it on the shelves of Wal-Mart, Target or Home Depot.
With every dollar we spend on imported goods, we are voting for more factories to close, more layoffs, more foreclosures, and more pain and suffering.
Our choice is two fold.
- Seek out and support fair trade products. There are plenty of sites available to help connect you with suppliers. If you have some you'd like to share, please comment below.
- Support locally manufactured products.
By avoiding the box stores, and spending money on locally made goods, or fair trade goods, we drive a stake in the heart of the rapacious vampire of transnational greed and despair.
Best of all, it's an easy stake to drive in once you get the hang of it. You can even use a high-quality, affordable hammer that is 100% made in America.
With a little searching, it's relatively painless to find domestically manufactured goods. The list below took a few hours to compile, and is by no means exhaustive. Notes further down.
Most of these sites are live, active stores -- whatever you see you can order online.
Union-made goods first:
http://unionmadegoods.com 415-861-3373
http://nosweatapparel.com 877-992-7827 (I personally ordered from these guys - great service & clothing)
http://uniongoods.com 484-431-3244
http://tannergoods.com 503-922-1797 (also ordered from these guys - quality union made belts and other leather goods)
http://allamericanclothing.com 888-937-8009 (9am-4pm EST). Affordable prices, however union members (of any union) get an additional 10% off)
http://justiceclothing.com (888) 661-0620 (eastern time)
http://uniongoods.com 484-431-3244
http://unionusa.net 800-259-4580 (union made imprinting products)
http://unionmadepromotions.com (union made imprinting/promo products)
General domestic manufacturers & suppliers
http://www.etsy.com/ (small run clothing & crafts, thousands of seamstesses & artisans -- thanks jennifree2bme for the tip)
http://madeinusaforever.com/ 1-888-861-0365 (online department store - clothing, domestics, ect)
http://allamericanclothing.com 888-937-8009 9am-4pm EST (Jeans, Bottoms, Tops, Socks, ect)
http://americanapparel.net/ (store locator) (Clothing, accessories, made in Los Angeles, CA)
http://saveourcountryfirst.com dorky sounding name, but lots of domestic goods.. clothing, sporting goods, tools, toys, ect.
http://www.localharvest.org/... (thanks to jennifree2bme for the tip!)
Toys & Tots
http://www.all-americanbaby.net/
http://www.toysmadeinamerica.com/
http://www.toysofusa.com/
http://www.amerikid.com/
http://www.usmadetoys.com/
http://www.downtoearthtoys.com toys with a green focus, 90% products made in USA
Tools & Gardening
http://www.bullytools.com/ Shovels, hoes, rakes, shears, ect - 100% made in usa. (I personally have ordered -- good quality tools)
http://www.estwing.com (hammers, chisels, ect)
http://www.titanman.com/ cutting and drilling tools (bits, blades, ect)
http://www.floriantools.com/... pruners, shears, loppers, ect
Outdoors
http://ringoffirepit.com/ Fire pit rings - check these things out.. made in MN.
http://www.springbar.com/... Camping tents
Other sources to locate goods manufactured in America:
http://americansworking.com
http://ibuyusmade.com
http://madeinusa.org
http://madehereinamerica.com
http://buydirectusa.com
http://findusmade.com
http://madeinusa.org
http://usstuff.com
http://usamade.wordpress.com
http://orderamerican.com "Union Proud"
http://howtobuyamerican.com
http://usgoods.org/
News sources for domestically manufactured goods:
http://madeinusanews.com
Disclaimer: I do not work for or hold stock in, or are otherwise affiliated with any of the companies listed in the links above.
Note: a couple of the sits may appear a little too gung-ho, but use your best judgment. Pick up the phone and talk to the stores if you have concerns
Some other pointers...
Be aware of what the "Made in America" label legally means. Under current regulations, products must be made up of mostly domestic materials in order to carry this label.
Less scrupulous companies sometimes reword labels to imply that the product is made domestically. This is especially true of many outdoor garden tools I saw in a local ACE store.. the brand had the word "American" in it, and was designed to look like it was made here. A closer look showed that the tool was 100% imported.
Another example is this caulking gun, which was advertised by a company who proudly claimed their products are "manufactured and designed in America".
I bought this product based on the assumption that it was made locally. When it came in the mail a few days later, this is what was left on the product:
It seems like a solid tool, and I eventually decided to hang on to it rather than waste more money on shipping it back. But I did not appreciate the loose wording on the label that prompted me to buy the product in the first place.
Another caveat: as more consumers demand products made locally, importers are starting to remove Country of Origin labeling from their products. Obviously this makes it harder to know whether the product we're interested in was made domestically or in Bangledesh by a 13 year old working 14 hours a day for .50/hour, while chained to her station.
Craftsman brand tools were once made exclusively in America. While many of the hand tools (ratchets, sockets, screwdrivers, ect) still are, the power tools, lawn mowers, and other hardware hasn't been made stateside in decades.
Also - domestically manufactured goods (and fair trade goods) usually come at a slightly hire cost. Cheap products result from workers being paid a fraction of a minimum wage, not given benefits, retirement or overtime, or who are made to work in unsafe conditions.
So, vote with your dollar. Be smart. Buy fair trade or products made in America. If we use more of our money on locally made products, the increased demand will require more employees, which means more jobs, and that's what we so desperately need.
If there is something in particular you are looking for, let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to put you in touch with a local or fair trade supplier.
Also, if you know of a local/domestic manufacturer, share with us a link and/or phone number in the comments.
I have to head out to work soon, and will be unable to reply to comments until lunch, and later this evening. Please be patient -- if your request for help isn't answered immediately I will reply.. just give me a little time. :-)