The real consequence of our national deficit is called inflation. The devaluation of our money.

For the last 60 years I have been a consumer, a simple word that means a person who shops for merchandise. During that time the words “Made in USA” have become harder and harder to find in our stores. Manufacturers have been encouraged to set up operations in foreign countries because of cheap labor and tax benefits. But the power of American currency has changed almost every country our manufacturers went into. As we improved their economy, that once cheap labor became more expensive so the manufacturers began to relocate their factories farther and farther overseas in search for more cheap labor. And as another consequence, we have higher unemployment at home.

But why does our government offer tax incentives to manufacturers to build those factories overseas? The reason is simply to keep the prices of goods affordable in our stores. But affordable goods also hides the effect of inflation which simply means an increasingly devalued American dollar. The dollar today has only the spending power of about 15 cents from 50 years ago. And back then when a lot of workers made less than $2 an hour they could easily afford 50-cent hamburgers and $2000 cars.

F.W. Woolworth Co. lunch counter menu from 1957. Click to enlarge.

The Federal government once enjoyed enormous strength and influence throughout the world because of the strong value of our currency that was backed with gold. Then some liberals began to exchange U.S. gold for U.S. currency accumulated by foreign countries instead of exchanging our money for their own. Millions of tourists visit America as do millions of Americans visit other countries and they bring their money with them. And the strange thing is we don’t get any gold  back from those countries when we sell them back their currency. Soon we had little gold left and the decline in the value of the dollar got worse.  We once had Silver Certificates printed on our paper money and minted Quarters from silver but that was discontinued when the value of the silver exceeded the value of the quarter.

Now we see where manufacturers have run out of countries with cheap labor and have gone to Communist China to have their goods made. And the Communist Chinese government is building factories to accommodate them so rapidly that they have become the world’s largest importer of oil to power them. They are consuming so much oil that even that is affecting the supply and demand cost of the oil that America imports. Communist China also accumulates so much profit from the exports of Made in China goods that they have been able to finance a Space Program and equipped their military with the latest high tech armament.

So the next time you are in a store to buy something take a moment and look to see where it is made. And do yourself a favor and spend some time on the Internet searching for Made in USA products, they ARE available but your local department store won’t carry them. Why the stores don’t carry Made in USA products is a good question. Maybe they cost a little more or maybe the distributors of the Made in China goods don’t want them to carry them. Whatever the answer, the stores don’t give their customers the opportunity to choose.  

After reading this, check out the web site madeinusaforever.com  and do a Google search to find some of the other web sites to also proudly sell Made in USA products.