U.S. Adults Average $950 in Imports per Month in 2013

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

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Where Did All Our American Jobs Go?

Take a quick minute to watch this really amazing video from the Million American Jobs Project explaining where all the American jobs have gone and what you can do today to help bring them back.

Do what the video asks and share it with just two people. Just a small change in our consumer behavior can create millions on new American jobs.

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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$300 Billion Trade Deficit with China for 2011 is Biggest Ever Between Two Countries; Consumer Goods and Automobiles Accounts for 82% of Overall Trade Gap

In all the hoopla surrounding the Republican presidential primaries, the release of President Obama’s 2013 budget, the Grammy’s, and the tragic passing of Whitney Houston, a truly significant report about America’s relentlessly growing trade deficit has been given very little media attention and is in danger of going unnoticed by the American public.

On Friday, February 10^th, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the U.S. trade deficit for goods and services was $558 billion in 2011, a 12% increase over the trade deficit for all of 2010.  Over half of the U.S. trade deficit (53%) was due to a $295.5 billion trade deficit with China, a staggering sum which stands as the largest trade deficit between two countries in history. (full report)

As our country’s job-stifling trade deficit continues to expand rapidly, and our inability to get it under control is without a doubt undermining our economic recovery.

Let’s look a little closer at why the trade deficit grew in 2011.  U.S. exports experienced strong growth in 2011.  Exports increased by $265 billion for the year, an 11.4% increase over 2010.  However, these strong gains were more than offset by $324 billion increase in imports, a 13.8% increase over the previous year.

What does this mean? Even though we are making significant gains by increasing exports, which is creating jobs, we are simultaneously costing ourselves jobs by continuing to increase our consumption of imported goods. 

While some of the simultaneous increases of imports and exports are due to imported materials being used to make goods in the U.S. for export, the vast majority of our trade deficit is due to the trade imbalance we incur in consumer goods and automobiles. 

In 2011, the U.S. imported $768 billion worth of consumer goods and automobiles.  However, we exported just $309 billion in these same categories.  Overall, the U.S. experienced a $459 billion trade deficit in consumer goods and automobiles, which accounted for 82% of the overall U.S. trade deficit for 2011.

What does that mean for American consumers?  It means we have the power to control our collective economic destiny by adjusting our consumer behavior.  If enough of us will commit to buying American, we have it within our power to eliminate the U.S. trade deficit, which will keep more than a half-trillion dollars circulating in our economy, and will create jobs – probably millions of jobs – here in America.

That is why I am buying American.  I am determined to do my part to get our country back to prosperity.  Will you join me?  Take the Buy American Challenge today!

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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Politics and Buy American Advocacy Don’t Mix

I have tremendous respect for everyone in the buy American community.  Anyone willing to spend time promoting the practice of buying made in USA out of a hope for a better future of our country is aces in my book.  I only wish we had more people willing to take the charge. But as buy American advocates, we need to be very cautious not to let the ugliness of politics seep into – and frankly, infect – our buy American message.  Because every time it happens, another person who would be a new buy American advocate gets alienated.

Let’s face it, Americans are passionate about politics, and while 10-20% percent of Americans may be on the fence on Election Day, the other 80% are pretty firmly entrenched in one camp or the other.  Those that do have strong political leanings generally do not like to hear or read about the political leaders and organizations they support being spoken about in a negative light.  Nor do they typically like to hear about the leaders and groups they do not agree with spoken about in a favorable light (although favorable discussion of any kind is more tolerable).  Discussing politics in any capacity simply has the potential to rub a lot of people the wrong way.  It is unavoidable.

That is precisely why it is best not to mix messages about politics and buying American.  The buy American message resonates with people of all different backgrounds and persuasions.  Individual Americans choosing to buy American is not a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s an American issue.  Buying American creates jobs and helps our economy.  Anybody should be able to agree with that, and the overwhelming majority of Americans do.  So why mix that buy American message that so many are receptive to with a political message that is certain to alienate many? If you genuinely want the buy American message to carry through, it’s just not a good idea to mix messages.

I believe one major reason that politics and buy American messages often get intertwined is that those who are passionate about buying American also tend to be fervent about politics, so it’s only natural for messages about the two subjects to get interconnected.  Once again, I believe one must make every effort to keep these the two separate.  The buy American movement needs to grow if it is ever going to be the force in this country that it could be.  As advocates, we cannot afford to be turning away support because of politics creeping into our message.

Let me make one thing clear: I am not saying that buy American advocates should avoid being vocal about politics.  Far from it.  What I am saying is that as a buy American advocate, you should do your best not to mix political and buy American messages at the same time or in the same venue.  What does that mean in practice? If you have a blog, website, or facebook page about buying American, don’t post political messages on there, and do your best to keep the political messages others post there to a minimum.  Try to be sensitive to the fact that your buy American supporters may lean opposite you politically.  If you want to talk politics, do it on a personal facebook page or on a separate blog.  You get the picture. 

My interest is the success of the buy American movement.  We only have so many real leaders out there, and we will all have more success if we can stay focused on communicating our buy American message free of politics. 

In a time of incredible political division in this country, buying American is one thing that still genuinely unites people of all different backgrounds and beliefs.  Whether you identify as a Tea Partier or a labor activist, there is a good chance you support buying American.  You’d be hard-pressed to find an area where you’ll find more common ground among staunchly opposed political groups and individuals. 

The truth is, when it comes to buying American, politics doesn’t matter, so let’s not let it get in the way.  Politics has ruined enough in this country; let’s not let it ruin our buy American movement as well.

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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Sorry Cars.com, Explorer Most American-made for 2011

2011 Ford Explorer

Cars.com is misleading the American public again with their conceptually faulty “American-made Index” that was just recently published by the website for 2011 model cars. 

These rankings, which Cars.com promotes as the most American-made cars on the market, lists the Toyota Camry the #1 most American-made car for the second year in a row.  That distinction should have rightly gone to the Ford Explorer.  The Ford Explorer is made in Chicago, Illinois and has more domestic parts content than the Camry.  In fact, the Explorer has the highest domestic parts content of any vehicle currently in production  which is still being sold through 2011 .  That means it beats the Camry on this website’s list of most American-made vehicles.  (Point of Clarification: the Ford Sport Trac has 90 percent domestic content, but was discontinued after production of model year 2010 was complete; however, it is reportedly still being sold in Ford dealerships through calendar year 2011.)

Please don’t misunderstand me; I am extremely pleased that Toyota chooses to produce many of their automobiles in the U.S., thereby creating American jobs.  But putting the Camry on top of a rating called the “American-Made Index,” is simply wrong.

Not only is Cars.com is using questionable methodology to reach their conclusion, they do not publish the methodology they use in developing the rankings.  If these rankings are going to be cited all over the place and regarded by many to be the list of the most American-made cars, the methodology should absolutely be made public.

According to Cars.com, the three factors that were considered to create this American-made index were: country of final assembly, American-made parts content, and volume of sales.

Wait a minute! What does volume of sales have to do with anything?  If I’m going to use the “American-Made Index,” I am going to use it to buy a car that is going to be the most American-made per car. The Toyota Camry doesn’t move ahead of other cars with higher American-made parts content, like many cars produced by Ford and Chrysler because more Toyotas are sold. 

The Camry is made with 80% domestic parts content.  That’s not bad at all.  But there are several other American-made cars with higher American parts content that got skipped on this list.  These are the cars that should be making headlines for being the most American-made.  In fact, two cars with higher domestic parts content that got skipped on this list compete directly with the Camry and the Honda Accord (which Cars.com dubiously ranked second on their list). 

The Chrysler 200 Sedan (remember the “Imported From Detroit” Super Bowl commercial with Eminem) has more American-made content than either the Camry or the Accord.  So does the dodge Avenger Sedan. Both are made in Michigan.

I don’t know what Cars.com’s motivation is in creating this misleading index, but it is very counterproductive to efforts to increase consumer patriotism in this country.  Stories like these create consumer confusion, which causes many people to just give up on buying American altogether. 

If you have some time, please let Cars.com know that their index should leave sales volume out of their methodology.  They should also publish precisely how their rankings are determined. 

Here is the email address of Patrick Olsen, editor in chief at Cars.com: polsen@cars.com

American consumers could really benefit from an American-made index that doesn’t “cook the books” for certain cars.  To be acknowledged as most American-made car, you should have to actually be the most American-made car. 

Once again, here is the full list of vehicles and their domestic parts content as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.gov/Laws+&+Regulations/Part+583+American+Automobile+Labeling+Act+%28AALA%29+Reports

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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If You Only Buy One Thing Made in U.S.A., Make it Your Car

The Ford Sport Trac is made in Louisville, Kentucky and has the highest percentage of domestic parts content - 90% - of all vehicles being sold in the U.S.

Without question, the most important time you can buy American is when you are purchasing a car.  The reason for this is simple.  A new car is second only to a home as the most expensive purchase many consumers make. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, the average price of a new car sold in the United States is $28,400. That is a whole lot of money to be spent at one time on a single purchase. Choosing to buy American in this one critical instance has the same impact as buying hundreds of less expensive goods that are American-made.  In short, when buying a car, this is the time when you can do the very most to help create American jobs by buying made in U.S.A. 

Another reason it is great to buy American when buying a car is that our country makes many of the best cars in the world.  Whether it’s a car, truck, SUV, hybrid, you name it, many of the very highest rated and best-selling vehicles in the world are made right here in the U.S.A.  Regardless of what kind of vehicle you are looking for, you will likely find one that fits your needs that is made in America.

Buying American is a little more complicated for cars than most other goods though.  There are lots of foreign sounding cars, like some Toyotas and Hondas, that are actually now made in the U.S.A., and there are some traditional American car brands that are now made in other countries.  So when buying a car, we really can’t just assume based on the brand name where the car was made.  We really have to do a little more homework to make sure the car we are buying is made in the U.S.A. 

Another important consideration when car buying is the percentage of U.S. domestic parts content used to make the vehicle.  We can’t get parts content information for most goods we buy, but with cars we have access to a great deal of information.  Not only can we identify where every vehicle had its final assembly, but every car manufacturer publishes the percentage of domestic parts content used in making their vehicles.  This allows us to differentiate between the cars that have 0% domestic parts content and those that have a much higher percentage of U.S.-made content.

The parts content is important because when you buy a car, you aren’t just creating jobs for the people working in the final assembly plant; you are creating jobs for workers all the way up through the supply chain – like the person who built the transmission or the person who sewed the seats together.  Cars create lots of jobs for workers that never actually see the final product being made.  That is why it is critical to consider the percentage of domestic parts content when purchasing a car.

One thing to consider about parts content is that no car is made with 100% American-made parts anymore.  One main reason for that is every car built today has a computer chip and complex electrical system built into it.  Some of this parts content simply cannot be sourced in the U.S.A.  But we shouldn’t let that discourage us from buying an American-made car with as high a percentage of domestic parts content as possible.  Thankfully, we have over 100 cars and trucks to choose from that have 50% or more of their parts content made in the U.S.A.

If you are wondering what the most American-made car on the market is; it is the Ford Sport Trac, made by Ford Motor Company.  The Sport Trac is made in Ford’s Louisville, Kentucky plant that has been in operation since 1955.  There are 2,100 workers employed at that plant.  In addition to the Sport Trac, this plant also makes the Ford Explorer and the Mercury Mountaineer, both of which have 85% domestic parts content. 

For a full list of cars (years 2005-2011) and their percentage of U.S. parts content, go here: http://www.nhtsa.gov/Laws+&+Regulations/Part+583+American+Automobile+Labeling+Act+%28AALA%29+Reports

Remember, there is no more important time to buy American than when you are buying a car.  And don’t forget, the higher percentage of domestic parts content the car has, the more American jobs you are creating when you buy it. 

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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Watch “Made in America” on ABC World News Tonight

Tonight, ABC World News with Dianne Sawyer is continuing its groundbreaking series called “Made in America.” The series is shedding some much-needed light on the importance of buying American-made products in order to create jobs in this country.

World News Tonight airs at 6:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.  Please make sure you don’t miss it.

Thank you, ABC World News, for this terrific series.

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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America’s Most Celebrated Leaders Have Supported Buying American

Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan: Three celebrated American presidents that supported buying American and promoting American-made goods.

This week was President’s Day, which got me thinking, what did some of America’s most popular presidents think about buying American and promoting American products?  After all, that is the whole purpose of the Buy American Challenge – to encourage Americans to buy more of the things made in the U.S.A. so that we can support American businesses and create American jobs.  What I found was that over the last 200 years, there has been an overwhelming amount of support from American presidents for doing exactly what Buy American Challenge aims to do.

America’s first president, George Washington, was a supporter of buying American.  He favored American-made goods over imported products and told others about it as well.  In a letter from Mount Vernon, on 29 January 1789, he wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette: “We have already been too long subject to British prejudices. I use no porter or cheese in my family, but such as is made in America; both these articles may now be purchased of an excellent quality.” I think it is clear that GW would be proud of our buy American efforts.

Abraham Lincoln, who is perhaps America’s most celebrated president, was also a supporter of buying American.  He understood the economic importance of keeping enough of our dollars circulating in our economy and creating jobs here.  Lincoln explained it in the simplest of terms. “When we buy manufactured goods abroad, we get the goods and the foreigner gets the money. When we buy the manufactured goods at home, we get both the goods and the money.”  Lincoln would definitely support our efforts to buy more goods made in the U.S.A.

Finally, I want to highlight a more modern American president – Ronald Reagan.  Reagan knew the importance of promoting American-made goods.  In fact, the issue was so important to Reagan that on December 8, 1986, he declared by proclamation the month of December to be “Made in America Month.”  The proclamation read: “I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim December 1986 as ‘Made in America Month.’ I invite the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to celebrate the excellence of American products.”  Clearly, Reagan would have cheered our efforts to talk about the quality of American products and to buy American.

So there you have it.  It turns out buying American and talking about high quality American-made goods is not such a novel concept, it’s just one that many of us have forgotten about.  But we can’t afford to forget about it any longer.  We can start creating jobs again in this country simply by buying American-made goods in our everyday purchases.  I hope you will consider doing it yourself.

Please consider taking the Buy American Challenge.

Until next time, here’s to doing what we can to support our country by buying American.

Randy

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Warren Buffet’s Sobering View of the U.S. Trade Deficit

I thought it would be a good time to highlight some expert opinion about the extreme importance of addressing the U.S. trade deficit.  I mean, who cares what Randy has to say?  Not many, believe me!  But how about Warren Buffett, a man generally regarded as one of the world’s most successful investors, and a man genuinely concerned with America’s future?

In 2003, Warren Buffet wrote a piece for Fortune Magazine called “America’s Growing Trade Deficit Is Selling The Nation Out From Under Us. Here’s A Way To Fix The Problem – And We Need to Do It Now.”  In this article, Buffett predicts all kinds of scary things for the future of our nation if we allow our enormous trade deficit to continue to expand (FYI, it has).  

In the article, Buffett describes the U.S. trade deficit this way: “In effect, our country has been behaving like an extraordinarily rich family that possesses an immense farm. In order to consume 4% more than we produce–that’s the trade deficit–we have, day by day, been both selling pieces of the farm and increasing the mortgage on what we still own.”

Better yet, I won’t summarize.  Here is the actual article:

America’s Growing Trade Deficit Is Selling The Nation Out From Under Us. Here’s A Way To Fix The Problem–And We Need To Do It Now.

By Warren E. Buffett

November 10, 2003

(FORTUNE Magazine) – I’m about to deliver a warning regarding the U.S. trade deficit and also suggest a remedy for the problem. But first I need to mention two reasons you might want to be skeptical about what I say. To begin, my forecasting record with respect to macroeconomics is far from inspiring. For example, over the past two decades I was excessively fearful of inflation. More to the point at hand, I started way back in 1987 to publicly worry about our mounting trade deficits–and, as you know, we’ve not only survived but also thrived. So on the trade front, score at least one “wolf” for me. Nevertheless, I am crying wolf again and this time backing it with Berkshire Hathaway’s money. Through the spring of 2002, I had lived nearly 72 years without purchasing a foreign currency. Since then Berkshire has made significant investments in–and today holds–several currencies. I won’t give you particulars; in fact, it is largely irrelevant which currencies they are. What does matter is the underlying point: To hold other currencies is to believe that the dollar will decline.

Both as an American and as an investor, I actually hope these commitments prove to be a mistake. Any profits Berkshire might make from currency trading would pale against the losses the company and our shareholders, in other aspects of their lives, would incur from a plunging dollar.

But as head of Berkshire Hathaway, I am in charge of investing its money in ways that make sense. And my reason for finally putting my money where my mouth has been so long is that our trade deficit has greatly worsened, to the point that our country’s “net worth,” so to speak, is now being transferred abroad at an alarming rate.

A perpetuation of this transfer will lead to major trouble. To understand why, take a wildly fanciful trip with me to two isolated, side-by-side islands of equal size, Squanderville and Thriftville. Land is the only capital asset on these islands, and their communities are primitive, needing only food and producing only food. Working eight hours a day, in fact, each inhabitant can produce enough food to sustain himself or herself. And for a long time that’s how things go along. On each island everybody works the prescribed eight hours a day, which means that each society is self-sufficient.

Eventually, though, the industrious citizens of Thriftville decide to do some serious saving and investing, and they start to work 16 hours a day. In this mode they continue to live off the food they produce in eight hours of work but begin exporting an equal amount to their one and only trading outlet, Squanderville.

To read the rest of this article (and I hope you will), click on this link: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/growing.pdf

Our trade deficit is a serious problem that we need to do something about soon.  We can’t wait around for Washington to fix this problem because if they were going to take bold action to address this, they would have done something by now.  However, every one of us can do our part to address this problem by buying American.  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

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Prominent Economist Challenges Sense of Buy American Effort; Randy Responds

This week, Dr. Donald J. Boudreaux, a prominent economist and the former Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, penned an open letter to me in response to my Feb. 12^th posting, “Record Crushed: U.S. Trade Deficit with China – $273 Billion in 2010 – Biggest Ever Between Two Countries.” He also posted the letter in the comments section of the posting on this blog.  In the open letter, Boudreaux posed several barbed questions about the Buy American Challenge effort.  Here is my response…

Dr. Boudreaux,

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I appreciate your comments and direct questions.  And I appreciate you thinking so highly of my posting that you penned an open letter to me on your own blog. I truly love a good debate, so this should be fun.  I realize, of course, I am choosing to engage in an economics debate with a renowned economist (or perhaps multiple economists), but hey, I guess eventually you have to play with the big boys. 

So let’s go question by question.  You asked:

– Because “buying American more often” means buying low-priced imports less often, Americans’ spending power will shrink. Americans will then have less money to spend at the movies, at local restaurants, on premium cable-tv packages, and the like. How do you know that the job losses that result from contractions in these industries won’t offset whatever job gains emerge in other industries from “buying American more often”?

I like how you phrase that… How do I know if jobs created from buying American won’t be offset in other areas?  Of course, I don’t pretend to know because these things do not have a direct relationship on each other; job creation and unemployment is caused by a myriad of factors.  So no one could ever know this sort of thing, much less be certain of it ahead of time.  But, since we are currently experiencing a huge jobs crisis in this country, and you are the one who argues for a less intuitive method of creating jobs in this country than I do, I would like to know: How do you know that the job losses that result from $500 billion leaving the country via the trade deficit – which most economists say is stifling job-creation in the U.S. – are fully offset by employment increases in other industries as you claim?  I don’t think you could possibly know that.

Your whole question starts with a faulty assumption.  The assumption you made is that buying American will reduce one’s buying power.  That is an entirely untrue assumption.  I have been on a strict buy American program for a year, and I have more money to buy things I want and need than I ever had.  Try to buy American for a week and you will see why.  When you buy American, you rarely make impulse purchases.  How many sweaters do you have in your closet?  More than you need?  Me too.  Practically every sweater I have in my closet was purchased on impulse.  That stops when you buy American because the majority of the consumable goods you see in malls and at Target are imported.  Buying American makes you think about whether you actually want to buy something because American-made things are a little harder to find.  Buying lots of stuff you don’t need reduces your buying power, not buying American.  Buying American actually helps people live within their means and increases buying power.  Plus, I am not saying everyone should entirely stop buying imports (so please do not pretend that is what I’m saying), what I am saying is that if Americans can cut their consumption of imported goods 25% and replace that with American-made goods, we will have no trade deficit, and many more jobs because of it.

Here is another wrong assumption. You assumed that American-made things are more expensive.  Certainly that is true sometimes, but not always.  There are lots of American-made items that are of equal quality that are less expensive than imported goods.  Are American-made New Balance running shoes more expensive than imported Nike? No.  Is Tito’s Handmade Premium Vodka (made in Texas) more expensive than imported Grey Goose? No.  People pay more for imported items sometimes because there is a higher perceived value simply because the product is imported.  But those misperceptions can be changed, and that is precisely what I am trying to do.  Buying American in these cases will increase one’s buying power.  Using your own logic, you should be a big supporter of buying American when American-made goods are less expensive.  Not only would we create jobs from the goods being made here, but we would also be increasing our buying power through cost savings, which would lead to more jobs created in other areas like restaurants, cable-TV, and the like.  I don’t think you can have it both ways.  If you think it is better to buy less expensive imported goods because of the impact it has on job creation in other areas, then you should be a big supporter of buying American-made in cases when the American-made product is less expensive. Do you support buying American in these cases?

Then there is the issue of quality.  A lot of the cheaper imported products are in fact poorer quality.  How many $5 umbrellas have you broken?  Me too.  They say, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” for a reason.  Much of the imported stuff we are buying is cheaper quality.  American-made stuff is more expensive sometimes, but in most cases, products made in the U.S.A. are higher quality and last longer. 

You asked:

– At least half of all U.S. imports are inputs used for production here at home by American firms. So if American firms substitute more costly American-made inputs for lower-priced imported inputs, many American firms’ costs will rise. These firms will lose market share. How do you know that the job losses that will result from these firms’ contractions and bankruptcies will not offset whatever job gains emerge from “buying American more often”?

Again, I object to the phrasing of the question.  My method of job creation and deficit-reduction is straight forward and intuitive.  Buying American-made things puts Americans to work who make those things.  That is plain and simple.  The burden of knowing is on you, since your position (as I understand it) is that American consumers should do nothing to correct the trade imbalance or create jobs for Americans by buying American.

I have never said that I think companies should stop using imported goods in production.  The reason I have not said that is because I advocate a consumer approach to addressing the trade deficit and unemployment problems in this country.  I believe that if we create demand for American-made goods by talking about the superior quality of American products and the positive impact buying American has on our economy – and millions of people start to do it – American firms will be profitable meeting that demand.  I’m not sure how we could make American companies use domestic inputs even if we wanted to.  But if the American people demand it, then companies will find a way to fill that demand profitably.  But we are a long way from that.  Right now you can’t even find the domestic parts content for most goods.  If you think somehow that American consumers buying American-made goods will cause bankruptcies, I think you are wrong. 

You asked:

– Because every dollar of America’s trade deficit is a dollar invested in the U.S. economy – investments that overwhelmingly expand the volume of America’s productive capital assets above what this volume would be without these foreign investments – eliminating America’s trade deficit will likely result in a net reduction of investments in the U.S. economy. How will less investment “secure our long-term economic future”?

Please reword this question and I will be happy to answer it.  I’m not sure what you are asking. 

Please answer this hypothetical:

You are considering purchasing one of two widgets.  One is an American-made product, produced by an American-owned company and made with 100% American parts content.  The other is an imported product, produced by a foreign-owned company and made with 0% American parts content.  They are both the exact same price.  In your opinion, which is better for the American economy?

A) Buying the American-made widget is better for the American economy

B) Buying the imported widget is better for the American economy

C) They are completely equal (neither A, nor B is better for the American economy)

I’d like to hear your other questions, and I would love to hear your answers to mine.

Thank you very much for commenting and starting what is sure to be a lively debate.

Sincerely,
Randy

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