On 8/5/2013 1:01 AM, scott wrote:
> The thing is it's us, the consumers, that drive such behaviour. Given
> the choice between a product made in your own country, and a cheaper one
> made abroad somewhere, people choose the cheaper one. If you want to
> force people to buy stuff made in your own country you need to tax
> imports out of the market, but will that really lead to a net gain?
>
Well, like I said, if they won't pay you enough to buy the one that 
costs more... But, also, the average person doesn't have a damn clue 
where something is made, and having a "made here" label on it can simply 
even mean, 'We paid someone so little they can't buy one, to screw the 
parts made in some other country together.'

But, hell, even I can't afford to buy "best", and I have fewer bills, 
and slightly better pay that like 90% of the people in the country. That 
is a **major** problem. Its not, frankly, unlike what happens with birth 
control, or medical practices some people don't like, or anything else 
similar. Just because, in theory, you can buy something else, doesn't 
mean, in reality, that you can afford the time, cost, travel distances, 
percentage of your income you can afford to spend, or what ever else has 
been put in the way, to get it. And, that is my core point. If the 
playing field is so badly imbalanced, that almost no one can pick the 
better option, or there just isn't a better option, then the "theory" 
that you can fix things by buying local, is a complete non-starter.

Maybe, if people started doing that 20 years ago, but then we could have 
avoided the current problem. But, at this point. People need better pay, 
so they can even have the choice, and even then, every place has been 
"walmart"-ized, to the point where, often, even if you could afford 
another option, there isn't one available. Its all well and good to tell 
the person that is already drowning, that they should have had a life 
vest, or a row boat, when the real problem is that the ship they boarded 
was called "Titanic".

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