Made in America should be on more manufactured goods. It is time to stop manufacturing so many products overseas and bring back American made into the buying lexicon of world’s purchasing public.
Over the years the public’s perception of products is the cheaper the purchase price is, the better. This is a false idea. The quality of the product and how it was manufactured should also be considered. For example many items made overseas use child labor under conditions that are horrendous.
Per an article in CITI IO, “According to UNICEF and the International Labor Organization, an estimated 170 million children are currently working in the clothing industry all over the world. Workers are also forced to work overtime without increased pay, which means that mothers are forced to either leave their children alone or bring them to the factory.” Here in the United States there have been laws in effect that prevent this from happening, but because the American public is either uncaring or just looking for cheaper goods these monstrous conditions still exist in overseas sweatshops.
Furthermore since these manufacturers do not have to follow US product health and safety standards lead and other dangerous chemicals do too often appear in the products we buy that are made overseas.
An example of this, “According to a study by The New York Times, many brightly colored fashion accessories that come into the US from overseas often contain lead-based paint and dyes. The exporting countries don’t have the same regulations as the United States, and their products could be making people sick. Colorful purses, wallets, hair accessories, and plastic jewelry could all possibly contain the toxic material. Touching the products and then touching food, scratching eyes, etc. could cause lead contamination in the body. Even if someone is exposed to trace amounts of lead, it can cause nerve damage and kidney failure.” These products may look like some high end US based company’s, but in reality they are many times made on the same assembly line during the time when the company representative is not present, IE during off hours.
You the US consumer are the ones driving offshore manufacturing. Because of the your cost price point mentality our manufacturing capacity has diminished over the years. I myself have been guilty of this and yet if I find that very rare Made in USA product I will buy it instead because I want to see more manufacturing of consumer goods here.
Only with pressure from the buying public will more manufacturing be shifted back to the United States. The false perception that if something is made outside of the United States it will be cheaper and just as well make is just a fallacy. And in fact we can compete at the international level with the giants, such as China and other Asian countries.
So it is time for you the consumer to start asking your favorite stores if they have goods made in America and if not why!
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
