Look for the Union Label...

[Virginian]

I pulled out some old clothes the other day to see if I could fit into them again. I found something very rare inside -- a Union label.

I have always been frugal with my clothing dollars, so I know the clothes were within a certain price range. Pretty much the same price range I see today for clothes made in China or India or some other country without child labor laws.
My American made clothing did not become so expensive that I had to start buying foreign made goods. Gradually, Item by item made in the USA started to be substituted by items made elsewhere. Now, it is hard to find anything made here. If we aren't manufacturing anything any longer, how can we afford to buy anything?

So the next time I hear the argument that food/clothing/shoes/electronics/houses/cars are affordable because of foreign labor I don't choose to believe that line because they were affordable before outsourcing and before our factories moved offshore and before illegal immigration was so prevalent that it became an issue. It isn't that the cost of these items is coming down, it is that the rich are getting richer off of wider profit margins. Yes, they are getting richer and the middle class is getting poorer. It is time to bring back tariffs on imported goods.

Think about it. Reinstating tariffs would make companies move back into the US and put Americans to work. Having a "Hire Americans first" policy would strengthen our economy and reduce the influx of cheap labor from other nations. If our government provided the health insurance and took that burden off businesses, our companies could compete better in the global market.

Our country is large enough and has such a diverse climate, we should be able to grow all of our food domestically. After the recent pet food poisoning, the importance of this should be more than clear.
Our population, collectively, should be able to provide all the labor we need to be self sufficient. If we don't have a workforce that is properly trained to fill the jobs available, it is because higher education is becoming too expensive for the average family and needs to be subsidized. It isn't fair that an American should be in debt for as much as $100k in student loans and have to compete for the same jobs with an Indian who was educated in India for free. Starting out with that imbalance, which one do you think will have the better lifestyle?

When we have lifted our impoverished out of poverty, then we can make a bigger difference on the rest of the world. We have a responsibility to our descendants of the American enslaved to raise their status -- their economic status, their educational status, their responsibility status to that of the average US citizen. We owe the same debt to the Native American. These are debts we can not ignore as we divvy out "citizenship" to those who only want to earn money here to take back to their home countries.

Lately, the Zogby polls have been asking do you consider yourself to be a citizen of: A) Your community, B) Your country, or C) The world? I don't know how to answer that question because the answer to all of them is Yes. We have to start somewhere and for me that would be closer to home. I will hire the kid next door to cut my grass before I will hire the kid across town. I will buy the Girl Scout cookies from the girl next door and the girl across town. I will contribute to the local Red Cross as well as the International Red Cross. But before I can do any of this, I need that job that just went over to China or India or to the PO Box in the Bahamas.

[NMDemDist2]

1. I agree

I added a post to my journal a while back along the same lines

we used to pay our hard earned wages for products made with pride by our neighbors and we didn't toss them when they broke (which they rarely did) we had them repaired and we cared for them and handed them down to our children.

pieces and parts of our lives that knit our communities together with our labor and with our interdependence. we would no more make a shoddy product for our neighbor as we would feed our family poison.

it was the pride and strength that built our homes, families, communities and nation.

how far we have fallen that we'll allow our neighbors lose their livelihood so we can have cheap foreign doo dads that clutter our lives and add nothing to our spirits.

we turn our backs on community and kill our country with every piece of crap from WallyMart while our Chinese brethren poison their land and water in the chase to make it for us.

Criminal.

[Greyhound]

2. You're right and the myth of "labor costs" being the primary reason to

move the means of production off shore has been exposed as the lie it is over and over, yet every time this problem is broached, it is repeated and resurrected again.

The bottom line is that the "investor class" (new euphemism for the ruling class) simply doesn't want to pay for the system that created the opportunities they enjoy.

[rjones2818]

3. I wonder how many of 'our' companies would

go bankrupt if we go the direction of fair trade through bilateral negotiations? How many of 'our' companies would stop being able to send products here?

[XanaDUer]

4. We used to sing that song when we were kids

there was a commercial that used to play on TV in NYC with the ladies' garment workers union singing that song...I got a black skirt from a second-hand store last year, and there was that label in it.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

12. That song always chokes me up

We sang it too. My father was a Machinist business rep who worked his ass off for his members - in fact he died on the job just days after being elected to his seventh term - and we were a loyal union household. I'm sorry he's gone but glad he didn't live to see how all the good he helped create has been destroyed.

[DarkTirade]

5. I never thought much about unions

until I started working at a place that had one. All of a sudden I was making a decent hourly wage and got free health insurance.
And yet this company can afford to stay competitive in the global market with others in its field. Imagine that.

[Coexist]

6. I remember a time when Wal-Mart was famous for going out of their way

to find products made in this country to fill their stores.

Times change, don't they.

[OzarkDem]

7. If they started that again, I would shop there

That was Sam Walton's initiative, to keep small companies, plants, etc. in the US open producing goods and keeping people employed. That was the environment Sam grew up in - small town midwestern US where one or two local plants kept everyone employed and earning a living wage.

He wanted to preserve that, its a shame his kids didn't feel the same way.

[AwakeAtLast]

8. I absolutely agree w/ you!

Cannot believe what Wal-Mart has become!

[orleans]

13. i remember their "made in the U.S.A." routine--

i'm so jaded i now think that everything was probably made in the mariana islands where they could exploit workers & slap a made in the u.s. label on it.

The Northern Marianas Islands are also the site of another controversy involving Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Jack Abramoff, and Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) and the alleged links to the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Northern Mariana Islands, role in stopping legislation aimed at cracking down on sweatshops and sex shops” on the islands in 2001.

The Northern Marianas Islands allegedly harbor the most abusive labor practices of anywhere in the United States. According to the progressive think tank American Progress Action Fund, "Human 'brokers' bring thousands there to work as sex slaves and in cramped sweatshop garment factories where clothes (complete with 'Made in U.S.A.' tag) have been produced for all the major brands."<3>

snip

In the extreme, the island's exemption from U.S. labor laws have led to many alleged exploitations including recent claims of the existence of sweatshops, child labor, child prostitution and even forced abortions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands

[Mend]

9. I have the song by Joe Glazer on my iTunes...

it brings back memories of a better America...

[mdmc]

10. It is too bad that the corporations want to milk the middle class

Both Dems and Pukes desire profits over community. We need a change and we need it now. Americans can compete with the world market if the playing field is level.

Secure the border, ports, and airports. Check all imports at our border. Make importers pay to ensure that our 'homeland' is secured. Use tariffs against countries that use slave, child labor.

We can do it America. Elect Kucinich. Or suck it up and deal with Ghouliani or Hillary - they are looking out for walmart.

[Virginian]

11. I am not happy with Hillary right now.

She wants to increase the number of H-1b visas. Bringing in more tech employees is exactly the same thing as sending our well paying technical jobs off shore. In either case, the job isn't being done by an American. The salary isn't being earned by an American.

As I may have said before, the foreign employee doesn't have the student loans to pay off and is able to buy the fancy cars and the big houses. That is adding insult to injury.

I will vote for whoever the party nominates, because we can't afford another republican, but I surely hope it isn't Hillary. She doesn't understand that we do not have so many jobs that we can keep on staffing them from other countries.
She doesn't understand that people won't major in fields where there are no jobs. She doesn't realize that she is creating a future shortage of American techies by eliminating tech jobs for Americans today. A DBA with a security clearance will really be rare then.

[stimbox]

14. Good place for Union made clothes

http://www.justiceclothing.com

All of the clothes at Justice Clothing are made in the USA and Canada by unionized workers.

[Virginian]

15. Thanks, I didn't know they existed. n/t