Made in America

This blog is going to be a rant blog, just thought I'd warn everyone up front.

I believe that globalization can be a good thing. I got my degree in Finance with a minor in Economics so I have to believe that because it makes sense on a financial and growth perspective. Globalization has made products more affordable and has made them available on the global market. When you export manufacturing to Asia, supply goes up, therefore prices go down. Which all sounds like a great idea right? It is a great idea but something else we learned in Econ was the law unintended consequences.

In the Econ world the law unintended consequences (Definition) can be a good thing or a bad thing. An example of the good is when a citizen decides to go out on his own and become an entrepreneur for his own gain. Then his business grows and he hires employees, it was an unforeseen thing but in his selfishness of wanting to work for himself, he benefited others.

More often than not though, an unintended consequence tends to be negative. An example of the negative is the 2012 dog treat recall. A "good" idea from the company was to cut costs by making the dog treats overseas but the unintended consequence of that was almost 1,000 dogs were sickened by the treats that were made overseas (article) and you can bet the company ended up paying a ton of money in damages to those families. (And I could almost guarantee it was more than they saved by shipping manufacturing over there.) Or what about that factory in Bangladesh that collapsed and killed hundreds (article.)

My point is that we have shipped nearly all children's products overseas. Go to Babies R Us and try to find a teether that's not made in China. (I did that this week, I failed) Go to nearly any retailer to find bottles, binkies, blankets, clothing, strollers, purses, swings, toys, shoes, anything.... it's hard to do. Even the 4th of July outfits for little kids at Babies R Us that had American flags on them were made in China (MIC.) (Ironic much?)

I understand it's cheaper to manufacture in China but what's the cost to us? What if the plastic used in China is toxic and your child chews on it and has a reaction? Or that cute outfit you bought your baby that was MIC gives your child a rash all over her body? And those are just the most minimal consequences that we could suffer.

I know it's almost impossible to avoid buying EVERYTHING that's MIC but I do my damnedest to buy things that are made in America. I just think that if more people paid attention to these things maybe, just maybe, designers and companies would realize that we know that they're still charging the same for a product that used to be made here. They're saving money but we're paying the same. Double check where your Coach purse was made, or your designer jeans, because a lot of those designers are changing their manufacturing but not passing along the savings to you. If you're going to buy something that's MIC, might as well get it from Wal-Mart where you get it for the cheapest price... they all come from the same factory anyway.

Just food for thought. #rantover

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