Create an American Job, Request an American Rental Car

Buying American-made doesn’t just impact us when we buy things; it also impacts us when we rent. Yesterday, I had to rent a car for a trip I was taking from Virginia to central Pennsylvania. I reserved an economy American-made car, the least expensive of all the cars the rental car company I was using had available.

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McClellan’s Buy American Tour Hits FOX

This week, Barr McClellan, author of “Made in the USA,” continued his media tour promoting the importance of buying American-made goods. The New York Times best-selling author, who has accepted the Buy American Challenge personally, appeared Monday morning on FOX Business, where he argued that grassroots movement toward buying American is the way to get the economy going. Check out his entire interview below.

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Each American Responsible for $700 in Imported Goods Per Month

Recent discussion about the trade deficit and buying American got me thinking; just how much do Americans spend per month on imported goods? Well I did a few calculations, and what I found shocked me. I divided the total value of imported goods in the U.S.A. for the month of May ($162 billion) by the number of adults in the U.S.A. (232 million). On average, each American adult is responsible for $700 in imported goods per month!

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“College Girl” Makes Case for Buying American

I’ve been seeing links to this youtube video all over the place so I thought I would share it. In the video this “college girl” makes a pretty strong economic case for buying American. She says, correctly, that if Americans would spend just one dollar less per day on imported goods, it would make a huge difference in our economy. Check it out.

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Support American Jobs, Vacation in the U.S.A.

Any place you spend money is an opportunity to think about buying American. One of the places that many Americans spend a sizable chunk of their discretionary income each year is on vacation. In fact, after housing and transportation, vacations are where most Americans spend the most money at a single time. A week-long vacation can often cost $1,000 or more per person. Visiting a destination within the U.S. is an opportunity to keep our dollars here and put Americans to work. To me, that means we should put some real thought into where we vacation.

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Best Selling Author Takes Buy American Challenge

This week, Barr McClellan, a New York Times best-selling author, took the Buy American Challenge. McClellan is the author of “Made in the USA,” which just hit bookstore shelves this May. In his book, McClellan presents a solid case for encouraging the purchase of products made in the U.S.A. as a solution to restoring our nation’s economic health. Economic recovery for our country can be quickly achieved, McClellan argues, if the majority of Americans will give preference to goods that are made in the U.S.A. in their everyday purchases. Buying U.S.A. and locally produced goods revitalizes the economy through a multiplier effect that counter-balances the negative impact of every exported dollar.

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American-Made Power Tie

The vast majority of the world’s supply of silk is made in Asia. However, just because neckties are almost always made out of silk, that doesn’t mean we can’t buy made in U.S.A. when shopping for them. We just have to look a little harder and be tolerant of a little buy American ambiguity. We can still find very high quality American-made ties that are made from imported silk but sewn by workers right here in the U.S.A.

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Here America, Have Some Nice Beer

One American made product that can hold its own with any import in terms of quality is beer. Still, for me, this was one of the most difficult foreign products to give up when I decided to be strict about buying American. I had a few foreign brands that I drank regularly, and absolutely hated the idea of giving them up. But since I did, some really great American beers that I had never really considered drinking before have become my new favorites. Now, I love these brands, and wouldn’t trade them in for what I used to drink.

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Unemployment Grows Like Cancer

I’ve posted this before, but I reposted it because it is now updated with the more recent job numbers, and it is such a powerful display of the unemployment situation being experienced in the U.S. Let’s start turning this around. Let’s get some more color back on this map by buying American-made goods. Take the Buy American Challenge today!

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Trade Deficit Surges to $42 Billion in May

The U.S. trade deficit surged to its highest level in 18 months in May according to the Department of Commerce (see release). The trade deficit increased 4.8 percent from April to $42.3 billion, the largest monthly trade imbalance since November 2008. Through the first five months of 2010, the U.S. trade deficit is running at an annual rate of a staggering $474.8 billion, a significant increase over the $374.9 billion trade deficit the U.S. experienced for all of 2009, a 26.6 percent difference.

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