There’s a sea change out there. More and more products are being made in America. People are rummaging through flea markets looking for old Sunbeams, old clothing, old appliances. Then there’s Etsy and Ebay, where people are making things in spare rooms and on spare time.. There’s the “Buy Local” movements, “Farm Local” movements built around the idea of sustainable, healthy food. But the one thing they have in common: the revival of American productivity.
Several things are coming together to make this happen. One is the green movement, with the emphasis on saving energy. Manufacturing local saves energy costs. When both the source of material and the demand for a product are close to each other, less energy is expended. Local manufacture can also efficiently use recycled and reused material, keeping it out of landfills. There’s the fact that too many places with foreign manufacture do so without much regard for the health of the planet, let alone the health of the workers.
Another thing that is a factor is the hidden costs of offshoring and outshoring and being noticed. Stagnant wages due to lack of opportunity, increased social welfare costs when people can’t get a job that pays enough to buy a home or pay for their own needs, let alone wants. There’s the dependency on imported expertise which means that if enough people are lured back one way or another, America wouldn’t be able to sustain itself on local talent. There’s also the realization that quality suffers in an environment where there isn’t any standards, where the workers are unhappy, and transparency is lacking.
‘Made In America’ Makes A Comeback
http://buyamericanprogram.com/
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