10-03-2012, 04:27 PM
I don't pay a lot of attention to it, because as I understand it, legally the "Made in" branding only requires the final assembly to happen there. So it's my understanding that, say a computer, could be labeled as made in the USA even if the motherboard was made in Tiawan, the processor in Germany, the memory in China, the video card in South Korea, the hard drive in Canada, and the case in Mexico, but since Dell took all those parts and made them into a functioning computer in Texas, that computer was made in the USA.
So for some products trying to track where it was actually made can be tricky. I know for cars there are several sites that you can google for, that track this type of stuff so you can get a simplified idea, like this http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/p...e-13795239 So you can see that a Toyota Highlander, since they use I think the plant in Tennesse, is credited as 70% American made, while a Ford Focus is only 60% American because many of the components are made overseas or in Mexico. It's over simplified, but it's always the market I think of when these discussions tend to come up. I live near people that have the shotgun racks in the back window and the "I buy Ford/Chevy because I support the USA" and who don't realize that some of those "Damn foreign cars" actually provide more American's with jobs than their American car. Japanese car companies learned that it made sense to local source their products to sell to the worlds largest market, so while corporate profit for Toyota goes to Japan, local jobs and income for a lot of it go to the US and with some of Ford/GM lines you can almost flip that.
Though for some products I do try to get things made closer to where I am for similar reasons as Kandrathe already mentioned. I do like to keep help keep some of those businesses/services available locally and the sometimes higher cost is just the premium paid, which in some cases is buying greater convenience for me. I tend to shop at the grocery store that is closest to my home, even though many of the products I get are 5%-10% cheaper at the Wal-Mart that is across town. Part of that is I like to give Wal-Mart as little money as possible, but the biggest reason is that 3/4 of a mile vs 2 and 1/2 miles is just easier, or healthier for me as I will bike/walk to the close place, but rarely to Wal-Mart (some of that has to do with the roads I'd have to deal with for the longer trek, but most of it has to do with time, 2 1/2 miles can often take more time than I have to not use the car).
So for some products trying to track where it was actually made can be tricky. I know for cars there are several sites that you can google for, that track this type of stuff so you can get a simplified idea, like this http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/p...e-13795239 So you can see that a Toyota Highlander, since they use I think the plant in Tennesse, is credited as 70% American made, while a Ford Focus is only 60% American because many of the components are made overseas or in Mexico. It's over simplified, but it's always the market I think of when these discussions tend to come up. I live near people that have the shotgun racks in the back window and the "I buy Ford/Chevy because I support the USA" and who don't realize that some of those "Damn foreign cars" actually provide more American's with jobs than their American car. Japanese car companies learned that it made sense to local source their products to sell to the worlds largest market, so while corporate profit for Toyota goes to Japan, local jobs and income for a lot of it go to the US and with some of Ford/GM lines you can almost flip that.
Though for some products I do try to get things made closer to where I am for similar reasons as Kandrathe already mentioned. I do like to keep help keep some of those businesses/services available locally and the sometimes higher cost is just the premium paid, which in some cases is buying greater convenience for me. I tend to shop at the grocery store that is closest to my home, even though many of the products I get are 5%-10% cheaper at the Wal-Mart that is across town. Part of that is I like to give Wal-Mart as little money as possible, but the biggest reason is that 3/4 of a mile vs 2 and 1/2 miles is just easier, or healthier for me as I will bike/walk to the close place, but rarely to Wal-Mart (some of that has to do with the roads I'd have to deal with for the longer trek, but most of it has to do with time, 2 1/2 miles can often take more time than I have to not use the car).
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.