I was recently having a discussion about unemployment in the U.S. and how it relates to the $500 billion annual U.S. trade deficit. That got me thinking: just how much do Americans spend per month on imported goods and services? Well I did a few calculations, and what I found was shocking.
I divided the total value of imports in the U.S.A. for 2013 ($2.74 trillion) by the number of adults in the U.S.A. (240 million), then I divided that by 12 (for 12 months in a year). On average, each U.S. adult is responsible for over $950 in imported goods and services per month!
That is much more than I thought was even possible. Can you imagine that? Every month, every U.S. adult is responsible for nearly $1,000 in imported goods and services. We have really let ourselves go!
But here is something equally amazing. If we could get the average U.S. adult down to just $790 of imported goods and services per month (that should be doable, right?), we would have no trade deficit at all. The trade deficit may seem insurmountable, but when you consider how much we are currently importing, we really don’t have that far to go.
In fact, if we could simply replace 17% of the imports we consume each year with U.S.-made goods and services, we would have zero trade deficit, and that would pump enough money into the economy (nearly $500 billion per year) that everyone in the U.S. who wanted to work would be able to find a job.
If more Americans will start to just consider where products are made in their purchasing decisions, we may really start to see improvements. Please consider taking the Buy American Challenge today.
Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.
Randy
Reblogged this on JobisJob search.
[…] Originally Posted by Cicero In the most basic of ways companies have no, inherent, obligation to the country (other than to obey the law.) Is it good business to spurn your customer base? That's an "it depends" question. It can, definitely, hurt an intangible. That being said, social responsibility is more a matter of fiduciary responsibility not to hurt the value of an intangible than it is about the "good" of the populace. I understand but lets be honest, our spending habits have changed dramatically, we "want" a lot, but truly "need" is what should drive us. If we made a concerted effort, all of us, to pick five products that we would buy either locally or American made, the total impact would affect the trending, and we know that corporations are flexible; they have created the markets, we need to create the market, So for instance, instead of Nike's made in China, there are American made shoes made right out of Mass, when you look at the marketing, it's almost obscene; every sports hero has Nike's logo on their clothing. Why? because it "embeds" the myth into the head of the viewer; athlete = hero = myth = imitation. I think we have to make an effort OURSELVES to stop the bleeding, if we do this, the corporations will come around, after all they SAY they are responding to the demands of the consumer for lower cost goods right? take the hit up front, change the paradigm and then thru sheer volume, costs go down. Look people do this with their mortgages, some first time buyers get their credits, but a lot of them are paying PMI due to their inability to secure a percentage of the value of the home, BUT, they refinance, sure it's painful up front, but in the long run, they have a capital investment, and they have managed the cost of such an investment so they are not house poor. At least, the smart ones (first time) do that. Regards Pace U.S. Adults Average $950 in Imports per Month in 2013 | Buy American Challenge […]