Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Mr. President, Can We Return to 'Made in America' Again?

On March 9, 2020, I flew back to D.C. The flight was more than half empty which was quite unusual – all flights to D.C. have been running at full capacity prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now remaining flights are almost empty with demand down in some cases by 96 percent.

A month later I wrote an article asking President Trump to open up the economy as it became more evident that the supply and delivery chains have been severely disrupted by the draconian quarantine-driven lockdowns of individual Democrat states, lockdowns which are yet to be lifted partially or fully. This resulted in closing small American businesses, the bread and butter of our economy. https://canadafreepress.com/article/open-up-the-u.s.-economy-as-soon-as-possible

Usually a quarantine is established to separate sick people from the healthy and, as the word says, it is meant for 40 days. But the state governors have decided to lock down healthy people, beyond the 40 days, with plans of more in-home confinement, robbing them of their freedom of assembly, religion, speech, and freedom of movement.

With 30 millions out of work and fudged death numbers from Covid-19, the hysteria has built up to the point where people are afraid to even get out of their homes without a mask, much less go to work.

Unemployment checks, ginned up fear and panic, bailouts, and forced government closures of businesses based on random decisions of “essential vs. non-essential” have further exacerbated the problem of returning to work. Social interaction has become evil in less than two months of constant government PSAs on TV, radio, print media, and grocery stores.

Salesmen in America used to travel around the country to small towns USA in the 70s-80s and found every little town with a town square with stores and factories around the town where people would be employed. Those factories sit empty now, victims of the production exodus to the Communist China or the buildings have been razed to make room for some other development. In light of the Covid-19 manufactured crisis which is destroying the world’s economy, the obvious question must be asked, why can we not build things in America again?

There are many products in short supply right now but freezers, upright and chest type, are something that we never thought would be hard to find. One store offered to order a freezer but it would not arrive earlier than June and, if things do not improve, it may be August or later.

A local owner of a furniture appliance store said that “there are no freezers, there is a national shortage.” An order could be placed but the supplier suggested the earliest tentative arrival as the end of May or June.

Then the  owner launched into a discussion about what is going on in this country and how wrong this shutdown is. He said, that if the mayor had told him that he had to close his shop (a business he has built over decades), he would have gone to jail rather than close his store. He was of the opinion that shutting down the country and businesses is completely ludicrous.  He also added that most who come into their store ask if the appliances are made in America.

In a 2015 Consumer Report recommendations for best freezers, about half of them were made at the time in the U.S. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/05/best-american-made-appliances/index.htm?EXTKEY=NW0N01506

In a 2019 interview, Marc Blumenthal said that “an Amana chest freezer and a Maytag upright freezer are made in Ottawa, Ohio. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2015/06/ohio-built_appliances_are_among_the_best_made_in_america_consumer_reports_says.html

Should we as consumers put pressure on suppliers and store owners to have more made in America products and parts? Is it right to export most of our manufacturing to an inimical country, one ruled by the Communist Party at that, when it is not in our best interest?

If you can’t find a freezer right now and you wish to purchase one, perhaps you should join a grassroots campaign to bring back more manufacturing to America under American ownership.

There are many former manufacturing hubs around the country where factories are sitting empty. Can't Americans who have the know-how re-purpose old factories? President Trump has certainly advocated so for a long time. America needs to manufacture its own products, especially key industries for our nation’s security such as defense, steel, medical equipment, computers, pharmaceuticals, meat packing, vitamins, appliances, and other essentials for our food supply.

These are unintended consequence of a Chinese produced Covid-19 crisis. We have allowed China to control manufacturing in the U.S. of formerly Made in America products. For a list of products still made in America check here and the reference list at the bottom of this article. www.americanmanufacturing.org

In order to return manufacturing to the U.S., we must train a better skilled workforce. Not everybody needs to go to college to get an unmarketable degree in social and racial justice for which there are so few jobs. It is noteworthy that you prefer justice to rule the world but can you feed and shelter your family with a worthless college degree? Many technical and manufacturing jobs pay so much better and you don’t have to spend your parents’ life savings on expensive college tuition. And there is always huge satisfaction at the end of the day for a skilled job well done.

Made in the USA reference list:












https://arisindustrial.com/made-in-usa/



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