Made in America

This picture is from Ford's Theatre, but with the flags I feel it
can be used for this post as well.

America has been known as the land of opportunity. Immigrants, citizens and all alike could come to America find work and support their family. In September of 2011 the unemployment rate in the United States was reported at 9.1%. It is my belief that this unemployment rate is so high because of the dying American industry.

A couple of weeks ago my Dad went to a conference in DC. At this conference he brought back a lot of small goodies local companies were distributing to guests. Knowing that I am a big American History nerd and enjoy materials representing that history he let me have this small foam Capitol building model. I loved it and was very excited about it. For some reason I flipped it around and to my surprise saw in big bold letters "Made in China." This was very amusing to myself and those around me that such an infamous American building toy was not made by the hands of Americans. The more I thought about it I began to wonder what goods are American made? One of the critical reasons that the US economy is in such dire conditions is because of the vast amount of laborious jobs that have relocated outside of US borders for cheaper labor.

So I started to do some research on American made goods and found some interesting results. There are several websites dedicated to American goods or services. If you check out Made in USA they provide lots of information on American made goods/services and many additional resources as well including articles about why it is important to buy American products. Americans are losing jobs, the economy is suffering, and disadvantaged individuals in these countries abroad are being exploited. All of these serious problems are a result of the decrease in American Industrialization.

Now my issue is not with Americans purchasing goods that are not made in America. I think the really issue is the lack of goods that are made in American. There are millions of able bodied individuals in this country who are out of work because in many cities especially urban areas there are simply not enough jobs for everyone. It is just as important to export goods and services as it is to import them. If we are constantly importing goods are economy will remain unbalanced.


What goods have you found in your home or while shopping that were surprising made outside of the US? American flags? American footballs?

I also found some cool videos of individuals take the "Made in America" challenge on ABC News. Follow the link


--Krystal