False! Why overseas products aren’t always cheaper

Buying cheap items is easy. Every store or stand is overloaded with ridiculously cheap foreign products. We understand why there are such prices, of course,  rapid offshore production and massive amounts unthinkingly force the cost down. This incredible multitude of goods means that, as always, there are people who hope to take advantage of the consumers. With millions of products manufactured overseas, it has become harder to distinguish good products from those that are just expensive.

However, quality matters because it will save you from buying a new one in the coming years. Products created using traditional techniques are perfect examples here. Some slogans express the same idea: if you become lazy and spend very little, you will end up spending more at the end. This is the case of products that are made some years ago by craft people, but today is almost entirely produced in mass.

To do this requires more thought than you might think. It's easy to get caught up in purchasing the so-called cheapest products,  as long as you keep "saving money" in your mind. Regrettably, buying cheap can result in spending more in the long run, whether it’s in the form of maintenance or replacement costs when you may be required to repurchase the same cheap product over again. This is the time when it's reasonable to spend a bit more money and free yourself from running into unnecessary costs if you really want to save money and invest in quality,

Think of something like leather, for example. You can frequent any shopping mall around and stumble over several leather products form overseas. Most of them will not be real leather, and many of them will not be formed with the concept of real quality. You need a real, leather gear for that. There are two important factors to consider when making a purchase decision: whether you are buying a pair of jeans or a set of electronic products: Cost and quality. It could be easy to cut corners where you think it’s an unimportant purchase and go only for the price or blow out your budget on quality because you think you should.

The problem we face as a consumer every time we make a purchase is bigger than a dollar saved, or how easy it is to find. With a little effort, and sometimes, spending a bit more, you can have an impact on the country you call home and the world in which you live in. Most of these products have at least one company where it is manufactured in the United States. Do some research and buy American. Your dollars will buy more than a good material, and will also affect the world around you. Therefore, as you head to the store, think about precisely what you want to purchase - cheaper product with a superficial background or a quality product from America. Then, choose American made -it's worth it!

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Here’s why American made products last longer (and cost you less in the long run)

Most Americans given a choice between foreign made products and similar ones made in the USA would rather buy the American made products. This is because we could always trust and have confidence in them.  There is also a natural need to value the products made in your country no matter what country you are from.

In order to achieve a continued economic recovery, the US requires a consumer-oriented commitment to buying made in American products. It is possible for industrial development in America to top the box in the rescue of the economy.

This new orientation will not only sustain American manufacturing jobs but also expand overwhelmingly the employment sector bringing about massive reduction to unemployment, help American businesses stay in business, and further increase greatly the tax base to take care of our natural benefits such as Social Security and Medicare.

Americans should buy American made products because these products not only last longer but will also cost you less in the long run. Products made in America are well-made, high in safety standards and, more often than not, more reliable. The top notch quality and safety control system obtainable in the US is second to none.

While it is true that we all have a need for some foreign made goods such as, computer chips, electronics, or fashion because of the availability and relatively fair prices, there are several other goods which are simply badly constructed. A number of these substandard products are made with only one intention in mind and that is price - a low price to beat the competition.

It is so pathetic that cheap products are delivered without ever paying attention to the details, quality, and finesse. On the other hand, if you pick up a particular foreign made product which has a Made-in-America alternative with a 20% higher rate, you’d find out that the latter would outlive the former in greater proportions. That saves everyone money in the long run.

A good example is vending machines. An American manufactured vending machine has components that are made with metal parts, which ought to add longevity to the machines life. This is not so with its foreign counterpart which has components of plastic parts and it is a fact that plastic parts do break down after a while. In the long run, you could spend more money on frequent servicing of the machine.

When you have a choice, it is safer and more economical to buy American. There is no better time than today to start. Refusal to buy American made products will not only cost you more in the long run but to a large extent contribute to economic problems which affect everyone.

If you desire quality goods for your home, office, or leisure; if you long for a decrease in layoffs or want to help stop it from happening, buy American made products. It will surely last longer and cost you less. It will also help keep the companies operating, and in the long run, help keep the economy strong. And when the economy is strong and stable, everyone benefits.

http://buyamericancampaign.org/american-made-products-last-longer/

3 Ways Buying American Products Can Help The Environment

The next time you find yourself walking through the aisles of your favorite local supermarket or retail store, consider picking up a few items just to determine whether they were made in the United States or in another foreign country. In all likelihood, you will find that many of the items you investigate were made in other nations than our own, which begs the question “How did they all get here?” These products were most assuredly wrapped in several forms of packaging in order to be well insulated during their trip to America, and they were likely placed on various forms of transportation just to get from one point of origin to the next. These two considerations on the environmental impact of foreign purchases combined with the fact that many foreign countries do not regulate production like the United States are three major talking points every environment loving American needs to consider when deciding to buy American.

When we ship products overseas to various factories for assembly, we are required to use numerous layers of protective casings to ensure they are well protected on their travels. These layers include plastic bags, layers of Styrofoam, packing “peanuts”, and other materials. Obviously, after the packing and transportation of these products have occurred, these materials have to go somewhere. Most will end up in landfills! Therefore, the less traveling a product does, the less packaging it consumes and is therefore better for the environment.

The next step a product takes while traveling from one location to another involves being placed in some form of transport, whether that be a car, train, plane or automobile. If this product was not designed in the United States, the likelihood it will travel using many of these transportation systems increases exponentially. Ultimately, the fuel and other chemical offshoots from this travel impact the environment in a negative manner. So, the next time you purchase a product made in America, rest easy knowing that the product you’re purchasing will not travel nearly as far and will therefore make less of an impact on the environment.

Lastly, one must consider the regulations that other countries ignore or take shortcuts around in order to meet increasing production demands from the United States. As has been mentioned in other articles, when ownership is not given over a product, those working on said product are oftentimes less invested in its success. Therefore, shortcuts happen and these shortcuts often impact the environment due to the fact that many individuals view our environment as less important.

As you can see from our discussion above, making the choice to buy American made products can positively impact the environment not only in our own country but in those of others. Our dedication to buying American will ultimately pay off when we see fewer packing products in landfills, carbon emissions reduced, and foreign countries bulking up health and safety precautions. All this can occur simply by buying American made products! GO U.S.!  

http://buyamericancampaign.org/3-ways-buying-american-products-can-help-the-environment/ 

The Biggest Benefits Of Buying American

Buying American products is a fantastic idea and sounds very patriotic. However, what is the reason for purchasing products made in the USA? This write-up will give you an insight about the advantages of buying American products. The benefits of buying American products are as follows;

1.    HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT FOR PRODUCTION: 

The environment used in manufacturing merchandise in the United States of America has a track record of safety. It has a comparative advantage over most countries regarding safety, and American made products are known to keep the environment cleaner and safer for human existence. Research has shown that most companies abroad do not follow strict safety guidelines and this makes their production process a dangerous one.

2.    FAVORABLE LABOR LAWS: 

When you buy American products from our manufacturers, you are also supporting good working conditions for the average American worker, and ensuring that child labor laws are enforced. When choosing American made products, you are also supporting a fair day's wage for an honest day's work. Most countries do not have a minimum wage law, and this provides a platform where workers are not given fair treatment.

3.    ROBUST ECONOMY: 

Buying goods made in the United States of America has enormous advantages as it boosts the economy. If we do not outsource jobs that are meant for our manufacturers in the economy to other countries, we will be investing in America as a whole. The outsourcing of jobs to other nations has proved to have an adverse impact on our economy as it reduces the employment opportunities in America. When we give out these jobs to other countries, we are indirectly supporting their economy, but if we patronize our producers and give them our full backing, the economy of America will be stronger and more buoyant.

4.    INDEPENDENCE OF THE AMERICAN MARKET: 

The lack of manufacturing in the US is not a wise strategy. Ensure you consume American made products. Doing this will make the American market grow more independent. Several factories and large sums of capital have been moved to nations that are not in alliance with the United States of America. When you choose American made products, you help to ensure that any political conflicts do not obstruct our access to goods and outputs.

5.    QUALITY SAFETY STANDARDS: 

Experience has shown that many products from foreign countries lack safety standards. The presence of strict safety measures and consumer protection laws in the United States of America are there to compel our manufacturers to make products that are safe for human consumption. Buying these quality products will give you an assurance that you are purchasing the right products that have a warranty. Use of quality products will safeguard your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Most of us have heard this argument in our parlance. Buy local, so the money stays local. It is true, even at the national level. When companies stay in the United States, they hire U.S. employees. When U.S. workers are employed they can spend the money they earn, in turn paying sales tax on much of that spending;  are not utilizing public assistance and paying taxes on their earnings. When companies stay in the United States, they pay taxes on their income to the U.S. government. Companies invest their money in U.S. banks, making our economy stronger.

When companies outsource,

(1) those employed are outside of the United States, and their income taxes (if any) do not get paid to the United States of America.

(2) The company, utilizing tax shelters, does not pay taxes or at the very least their fair share of taxes, to the Government of United States.

(3) Funds earned are typically invested in off-shore accounts, thus not adding value to the U.S. economy.

http://buyamericancampaign.org/biggest-benefits-of-buying-american/

The Statistics Game

http://buyamericancampaign.org/the-statistics-game-american-jobs/ 

We’ve already touched on the idea that having more focused education in technical vocations and tailored degrees for manufacturing are the ways to save the American manufacturing industry. Per the many employers who say that finding American workers who are qualified for the positions is next to impossible, it’s hard to figure out why people are not going into the manufacturing industry at the same rate of their predecessors. Part of the reason for this wide gap between the need in manufacturing and the steady supply of qualified graduates is the effective marketing campaign that has been pushing vocational studies and bachelor degrees that lead to manufacturing professions into a less desirable category for degree-seeking individuals.

Statistics to support the supposition that manufacturing professional degrees are needed are relatively hard to find since higher education, a multi-billion dollar industry in and off itself, has every incentive not to conduct or encourage any sort of polling process to find out how higher education stacks up to most vocational fields. They do, however, have many interesting infographics and graphs on how people with the broad term “bachelor’s degree” stacked up against people with “some college or associate degree.”

Again, both of these terms are incredibly broad and would include every major field of study against college dropouts, associates degrees without a focus, as well as, those who hold degrees which are tailored to the manufacturing industry. Common sense will tell you that most college graduates have a higher rate of success in finding jobs than those who have a high school degree and have not finished any other program of study.

This logical assumption is somewhat misleading however, since these terms does not separate out those who are underemployed, employed in a field which was not their major field of study, for example you now need a bachelor’s degree to become management in most major retailers, and those who attained degrees which have no correlation between the job field industry and academic study, degrees such as philosophy, Latin studies, history, etc. Furthermore, since these statistics are essentially tailor-made to make bachelors degrees, regardless of field of study, more appealing to the masses due to lower unemployment rates, it’s no wonder that when a recession hits people flock to their local universities to seek degrees.

In March, 2017, according to a Gallup poll, the underemployment rate for bachelor’s degree holding individuals was roughly 6.5%. This did not take into account the offset of the term “underemployed” due to the nearly astronomical amount of student debt incurred by bachelor’s degree holding individuals.

Likewise, those holding associate's degrees in vocational fields, technical fields, and other qualifying certificates for manufacturing employment were not separated out from the statistic concerning those in that degree range, making the number for that category at a 9.6%. Universities and colleges love using these types of statistical analysis to further their agenda: to increase enrollment rates.

They put their comparisons onto billboards, in paid articles perpetuated in the media both online and on television, in large marketing campaigns that produce commercials, paid paper advertisements, school visits to high schools, and literature mailed directly to individual homes. All of these campaigns have the same message: enroll in our university or college and you will be successful in life.

To be frank, that is simply untrue.

A bachelor’s degree in philosophy stacked up against a manufacturing certificate will show a higher payout and a lower debt for the certificate holder 99% of the time. A campaign for the re-education and rebranding of the manufacturing industry is desperately needed if we are to encourage our young people into the manufacturing workforce. The question is always, who is going to pay for it?

Until that complicated question finds a suitable answer, the first place starts at the most local level imaginable: with those young people in your life who are preparing to take the next step into adulthood. Educating them will at least start a conversation on the benefits of American manufacturing. If enough people have the conversation on a grassroots basis, it may lead to some interesting changes in the world of higher education where at least we can get some real answers when it comes to statistics regarding manufacturing employment.

 http://buyamericancampaign.org/the-statistics-game-american-jobs/ 

2 Ways Overseas Products Can Harm Your Health

In the economic environment, present within the United States, outsourcing our goods and services to foreign nations for completion is extremely common place while simultaneously controversial to millions of Americans. The controversy lies not in the outsourcing itself but in how that outsourcing has the potential to negatively impact the health of our fellow countrymen and women. This article seeks to shed light on just a couple of ways overseas products can harm your health.

In order to truly understand how outsourcing impacts our health as a nation, we must first recall that outsourcing was initially utilized to maneuver around the strict demands of unions while taking advantage of the low-cost labor that existed in abundance in other nations. This mindset, still in use by many companies today, should be the first indicator that your health as a consumer is not always considered a priority when trade deals are made.

Oftentimes, outsourcing leads to an overall decrease in standards that would not have existed if a company would have kept their goods and services inside our borders. When companies seek to outsource the processes or products they could easily perform or produce within the United States, they are opening themselves up to the possibility of their very own standards being diminished. Consider the fact that the psychology of owning a product or process for ourselves means that we are more inclined to care for it. Therefore, when goods or services are outsourced, we can infer that the standards they are held to are less likely to be maintained and more likely to impact our health.

If we take this a step further and speak about outsourcing from a purely economic standpoint, we will see how other countries may be inclined to take shortcuts we as American consumers would not be very satisfied with and that could ultimately impact our health. When a company determines that they will move forward with outsourcing a current American made product, they must consider the value of the American dollar to the value of the currency the country they are trading with utilizes.

When additional import and export taxes as well as fluctuating currency values are taken into account, foreign companies become more inclined to seek ways they can keep costs low. While some foreign companies will remain ethical and seek support from entities that maintain the consistency of their host company’s products, others will not be so inclined. This ultimately leads to one of the ways overseas products can harm your health.

Through our exploration of the ways in which outsourcing has negatively impacted the lives of your fellow citizens, we hope you have learned that buying American simply ensures that appropriate health and safety measures have been taken to protect consumers. When Americans purchase goods and services from within our borders, we provide the opportunity for regulation put in place by those who know us best, fellow Americans. So, the next time you choose to buy American, know that you are also selecting to support the health of our great nation!

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5 Reasons Buying American Helps Communities

People love to get products fast, and as free as possible. This has led to an unbalanced economy that depends on cheap, borderline slave labor from over seas. But, cheaper rarely means better. Quality takes time, passion, and personal dedication to the manufacturing process. This is just one of the reasons why, no matter what your political affiliation might be, buying American is great for you and your community.

Here are five reasons buying American helps communities.

Higher Quality

You want a product that is connected to the hands that created it. Instead of purchasing something dirt cheap that was drop shipped from a Chinese manufacture, American products are created with a great deal of pride. “American Made” isn’t just a slogan, it’s a way of life; its part of a long tradition of making products that last for years, and are crafted with passion. Small business owners take the time needed to craft products they can be proud of. Sure, it might cost a little more, and take a little more time to get, but the value is well worth it!

Raise the GDP

You don’t need a degree in economics to know that buying American made products will increase the amount of money recirculated in the economy and the value of the goods that are created. Buying American made products pumps money into the system, and creates a cycle of economical growth that feeds on itself. Instead of giving away your money to foreign communities, invest right here at home, and see our GDP grow.

Job Growth

The more money American based companies make, the more jobs they can create. You depend on high paying jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over your head, not to mention life’s creature comforts. Its why buying American is so important. Every time you buy an American made product, you send a message to companies: keep your jobs here and I’ll buy your products! This in turn creates strong, safe, and happy communities.

Lower Domestic Violence

Its been shown that poverty and domestic violence go hand in hand. Stress builds up as the bills pile on. Stress leads to bitterness, drug and alcohol abuse, which often leads to violence. When you buy American, you’re helping to reduce poverty, hence strengthening families and communities. Not only does it lower violence, but theft goes down as well. It’s a win for everyone when you buy American.

Strengthen the Middle Class

When you purchase American made products you’re helping to create a strong and vibrant economy. The back bone of liberty is a rich, and expanding middle class. When the middle class breaks down, and a vast gap opens up between those with a lot vs those that have next to nothing, bad things happen. Its what revolutions are made of. And revolution is rarely a good thing. By keeping money in America, you help to lift those that are in poverty up to the middle class, hence guaranteeing national peace and prosperity. 

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