Buy American?

I just saw David Oreck, the vacuum cleaner guy, on Cavuto's show. He was going on about how we really need to be buying American products. Apparently, our comfort with buying whatever happens to give us the best bang for the buck is going to be the cause of our demise. Among other things, says Oreck, we need to ask merchants for the comparable American product when we're shopping. That way, we'll buy more domestic products, which will be the best defense against outsourcing. This guy really sucks...get it?

Kidding aside, these arguments are specious at best. For one thing, when it comes to many products (like consumer electronics), the ones made overseas are far superior to those made here - in terms of meeting consumer needs at an affordable price. So, asking to see the US equivalent will be nothing more than a confirmation that I'm making the right choice on my DVD player. The bigger gaffe in this line of thinking is the underlying premise that American products are, well, American.

Many of the parts of US cars are made in foreign countries. This is the case with many, many products. The point is that buying American no longer means what it meant even 20 years ago. The genie of international trade is out of the bottle, never to return. The notion of picking American-made products over international competitors doesn't automatically translate into an ostensibly beneficial rebalancing of trade. The money will still make it to China and Korea and Canada. This is no solution. In fact, it has the potential to create more problems than it solves.

The great thing about the free market is that it rewards innovation. America is the pinnacle of innovation in just about every advancing industry on this planet. This is because the competition for customers puts pressure on companies to come up with new ways to meet their demands. It is, therefore, essential that the market be true. That is to say, consumers need to continue to make their purchasing decisions based upon getting the most for their money. If, suddenly, Americans started buying American cars no matter what, the innovation in the American car industry would stall on a dime. This might be nice for a while, but eventually international competitors would advance their products to the point where exports of US cars would decline rapidly. Furthermore, there's only so much economic patriotism that can be expected of society. When American cars stand still while Japanese and German cars move forward, there will come a time when it will be economically ill-advised to buy American, no matter where you live.

The bottom line is this: if we want to sell more American products, we need to make ours better than theirs. If we can't, we need to focus our attention on industries where our innovation continues to be rewarded, both here and abroad. Anything else is just putting off the inevitable while simultaneously ensuring that we aren't ready for it when it gets here. Stick to sucking dirt out of carpets, Dave.