For a couple of generations (and probably longer than
that), we have been barraged with frantic reminders to buy American products,
to put our people back to work, and not to spend our money on products made
overseas. Originally the villain was Japan. We had to avoid the
"rice burners" that were putting the American auto industry out of
business, stealing jobs from American workers. Hondas and Toyotas,
however, were such good products that American consumers bought them in
record numbers--and forced Detroit into making better products.
More recently China has taken over as the bogeyman
threatening American workers by producing cheaper goods than we can produce,
cheaper but inferior, we like to say. China and Third World countries have a
monopoly it seems on just about everything we need to buy—and every day or so,
I get hysterical e-mails about how we must be ever-vigilant to avoid products "Made in China." Protect American jobs: "Buy American." It's outraged self-righteousness that I
hear.
Last week, however, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
dropped some 500 points in two days. Analysts attributed the losses to
the Chinese stock market, which turned up shaky one day and caused a kind of
mini-panic in the American market. So maybe the "Buy American" campaign
is finally taking root at the expense of the Chinese manufacturers, ironically
causing a dip in the American economy.
Maybe buying American isn't the answer. Maybe
the free market that has us buying available goods at lower prices has to be
considered right. Maybe buying Chinese actually pumps up the American
economy. An odd thought.
