Welcome to ProudlyMadeInAmerica.com

Welcome to my blog. My intent for this blog is to discuss all issues surrounding the term “made in America”. The issue of “made in America” has two main components; should we buy American, and what factors cause companies to move their businesses to foreign countries?

Some buy American decisions can be made easily. On a recent shopping trip I wanted to buy socks that were made in the U.S.A. During my search for “Made in the U.S.A.” socks, I found socks made solely in another country, socks made in another country from material of another country, socks made in the U.S.A. with material from another country, and socks that were made in the U.S.A with domestic materials. Overall, it was relatively easy to determine which socks were made in America.

Some buy American decisions, such as an automobile, can not be made so easily. Is it possible to buy a foreign nameplate car that has more American made content then a car with a Ford or GM nameplate? This is not as straightforward as it seems. Do we exclude Mexican and Canadian parts? If most of the parts are manufactured on foreign soil, but the design, engineering and assembly are done in the U.S.A. does this affect the American content? I could go on, but I am sure that you already see that there is no easy answer.

In a nutshell, it is possible to buy a foreign nameplate car that has more American content then an American nameplate car. The problem is that if you wanted to get information on the exact American content you can not get good information. The information you get is only good for the extreme cases. For example, there is a Mazda that is built in Kansas City by Ford and a GM car imported from Europe. If you happen to be looking to buy one of these two specific vehicles then you have your answer. Most car buying decisions are not that straightforward.

The issue of why companies move parts, or all, of their business to other countries is complex. It is not always due to cheaper costs. I know of companies that have moved business units to other countries even though they knew that the overall cost of operations would be more. The sole purpose was to open up the market. They believed that the added revenue from the new market would more then make up for higher cost due to the lower productivity created by the move. To the shareholders of the company this might be a good move. The employees that lost their jobs probably did not see it the same way.

In the coming months, I plan to add forums and product information that will allow visitors to find and discuss the information they need to make their decision on buying American. For now, I hope that you will find this site to be both interesting and informative. I hope that this site will help you look at the issues more closely and with a better understanding.

-Michael Scholnick