My seven-year-old son had a favorite toy. It was a blue and red Spiderman ball. He enjoyed taking the ball out, kicking it with his brother and playing dodge ball with the rest of the family.
That was until last week.
He and I were kicking the ball and I kicked it. The ball sailed into the wild blue yonder and ended up in a tree. I looked at the tree and decided it was neither safe nor prudent for either of us to try and climb up and get it, so I promised him I would get him another ball.
Sunday, I took him to Toys R’ Us and for $4.99, he had a brand new ball, which was of course, made in China.
I was thinking about the ball as we drove home.
That ball was made in a factory in China. It was then shipped to a port in China. At that port, it was placed in container, and then shipped 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. The ball then arrived at a West Coast Port before being shipped across country to a store in the suburbs of Nashville.
It was sold for five dollars and the store made a profit on the sale.
What is wrong with this picture?
Everything in the store that my son looked at that day was made in China. If you have a seven year old and take him to a toy store, you know he is not going to look at just one thing.
How is China able to send a ball all the way across the ocean and still be able to make a profit?
The problem is not just children’s balls or toys. Visit Walmart or Target. You will be hard pressed to find anything made in America. Everything from clothes to electronics is made any place other than America.
Counterfeit Chinese computer chips have been discovered in the control systems for the Navy’s New P-8 anti sub aircraft and the Air Force’s C-27. Counterfeit chips are where old chips are taken, remarked and passed off as new. And of course, they don’t work.
We get all of our computers, routers and other significant electronics from China. The Department of Defense reported in 2008 that the Chinese used bootlegged Cisco routers to try and access classified information.
About a year ago, 60 Minutes showed a report about how, simply by hacking on the internet, a power generator was made to self destruct. The 60 Minutes reporter then showed footage of American power generators at the Hoover dam and pointed out the same thing could be done to those units and that would cripple American power generation. The report then added, those generators would take months to replace and were no longer made in America, so it was even possible we could not replace them.
In the name of free trade, we have let our manufacturing sector be decimated. We now have to buy components crucial to national security from China.
What is wrong with this picture?
Even in the Republican debates, certain candidates are worried we will start a trade war with China.
Trade war? They are stealing us blind and we are worried about a trade war?
My son loves his new ball. He loves to go out in these cool Autumn afternoons and kick the ball. He is oblivious to the problems with China.
I can only hope that thirty years from now, when he has a seven year old, everything he buys that child will be made in America, by Americans.
Tags: china, chips, counterfeit, free, manufacturing, national, security, trade
Permalink Reply by Kristin Fecteau on I have not heard any of our leaders in Washington say that in order to CREATE JOBS we need to buy American, whenever possible. Sometimes you can't, but if you have the choice, that should be encouraged. Why don't we hear that message, especially from Obama?
Permalink Reply by Ken McEntee on That's right Kristin. But why do we need to be told to do it? Are we that effing stupid that we can't do anything unless a slimy bureaucrat tells us to? This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Idiot reporters asking idiot politicians about their idiotic "jobs" plans. There are no jobs plans except one: Buy stuff made in American and Americans will be put to work. If a nation of 300 million people is too stupid to understand that, we deserve whatever comes.
Permalink Reply by Mike NQR on Most conservatives don't need to be told. But there are an awful lot of people who simply don't think about it. They're more interested in he convenience of getting everything from one shopping trip. I shop at Wal Mart every week but buy as little as possible from foreign countries.
So why do I shop at Wal Mart? Seven months unemployment will do that to a fellow.
How do I not buy too many foreign products? When I know there's a choice I go to where the product is made in USA. Home Depot is a great place.
But, you know, I found ammo for my .380 auto at Wal Mart that's made in Minnesota. It's less expensive than the German, Russian, and Korean ammo. How so? It only has to ship a little over 1,000 miles to arrive in central Florida rather than a ship, a port, a long cross-country haul, etc. Wal Mart is slowly getting back to Sam walton's values.
Permalink Reply by Mike NQR on Of course you're right Kristin. We say these things to each other and forward emails about it all the time. But nobody in Washington addresses the issue. I never thought about it until you raised the question. Now I want to know too. We have a Senate challenge in Florida next year. I already have my favorite for that spot among the GOP field and you've given me a new question to ask. I sincerely thank you for putting it on my radar.
Permalink Reply by Brae of VA on Problem is, there is so very little made in America. Appliances, parts, rugs, dishes, you name it...very little. Except FORD. I still have a FORD Explorer, now going on 17 years and love her. But when she becomes too exxpensive to use on a daily basis for work, I will buy another Ford Explorer SUV. I will keep my baby however, have her restored with FORD parts and drive her when I can!!!
Permalink Reply by Dr. Arthur W. Carpenter on I was standing out in the yard today shucking corn from the back of my '77 Ford F-150 pick-up...one owner, me...and tossing the ears in an empty chicken feed sack. When I bought that truck up in Peoria, Cat was still building machines there for export all over the world. It was union greed, the UAW, that drove them off shore. I have had 4400 pounds of sand dumped in the back of my Ford while the man at the controls watched my springs compress. Try that with your 6' bed (or shorter) toy trucks of today. They built fine products in America then and we could again if free men and women prevail in the coming battle.
Permalink Reply by Gordon on Lots of Cat products are still built here in the USA, but also around the world. I know. I work at Cat. Cat is going gangbusters because of exports. Cat plants are at full capacity or expanding everywhere! The economy is in the toilet and so people are buying into commodities; copper, steel, oil (tar sands), gold, coal, etc. Cat machines are needed to mine this. That's why we need free trade. Yes, buy local if possible. But don't restrict imports. Choose to buy American, don't force it. America does still build products here, at least at Cat!
Permalink Reply by Iowa Alan on Have you looked under a ford car or truck a lot of them say product of canada or made in qubec canada and engines made in mexico. I dont think any us car is really all made here.
Permalink Reply by Mike NQR on Good. Buy Ford with pride. The only one of the (former) Big Three to not have their hand out a couple years ago. I'm a former, and I stress FORMER, GM man. Fords are in my future.
Permalink Reply by jere fredenburgh on Can't afford to make anything in the US, because of over regulation and union pay, for at least some things. We need to invite business back to the US. DEREGULATE. Get government OUT OF THE WAY!
Permalink Reply by Joe Kunyatz on Yea everyone work for $5 an hour.
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