Why buy Made in USA products?

First I would like to thank you for reading my blog. My new company Bad Dog Hats is an attempt to keep myself and family afloat in these difficult times and it seems to be coming along. We make all our products here in the USA, tho I have to admit it is difficult to compete with companies who manufacture their products in china or elsewhere.

Second I would like to give you a small lesson in economics and personal responsibility. I am going to share with you some personal experience I had as a Product developer and Designer. As a designer for several Seattle area companies I went to China on several occasions to work with the factories on product development, packaging, manufacturing processes, fabric printing and other issues. I was shown huge factories where hundreds of people worked, I met consultants and had translators. I asked how much an average worker makes, and how much a consultant and translator make. Those answers and seeing how the factory workers lived, lead to a real appreciation of how this country protects its workers. The USA is a very good place to be an average worker.

Particularly striking was a visit to a prominent shoe factory, where in the tiny parking area in front were a Maserati, a Mercedes and a BMW, belonging to the factory owners, in a country where most people do not own a car, and if they do it is a tiny utilitarian van, or motorcycle/truck hybrid. Even in this country I can count how many times I have seen a Maserati on one hand. Everywhere in china you see people on bicycles or on these ancient rusty motorcycles toting wicker cages of chickens, or mountains of plastic bottles for recycling, or people sweeping with rustic looking brooms or working by the side of the road hauling dirt in baskets. It really is a different place and you see things that would be very odd here, and you see it every day, everywhere. People are just scraping by.

Here a person making minimum wage and working say a 30 hour week (as so many of the underemployed now do) will make around 840$ per month. In many places that is at least enough to get by, tho in Urban areas it is tough to make that work. To get by here in the US, you pay rent, buy food, pay your utility bills buy gas for your car, other bills such as insurance... its tight but doable and you might have enough to go to a movie once in a while.

If you are a factory worker in China, you may be 15 to 25 years old or older, and you make around 20$ a month, less than 1$ a day! Most factories work 12 to 16 hour shifts and have shifts seven days a week, and many of the workers will work all seven days to make the overtime for an extra 4$ a month.

The factories provide barraks for the workers and provide a meal (or two) to the workers, but to American eyes, these lodgings are spare at best, but are unacceptable to most American's standards. They sleep 6 or more to a small room on bunk beds that have a board. No Mattress, no blanket, no pillow. If the workers want such creature comforts as a blanket they must buy them from shops close to the factory on their time off after they have been paid. Each workers' few personal belongings are there on their bunk. one pair of plastic shoes, a pair of shorts and shirt. a tiny bottle of shampoo, a bowl and chopsticks, maybe a blanket if they are lucky or thrifty, and a small box with paper for writing letters and sending their paychecks home to the rural town they come hundreds of miles away from to work. The only break they get during the year is the New Years holiday when they pack onto trains with millions of other factory workers to go home. It is a way of life that is hard for me as an American, to understand.

Bathrooms are pretty scary, and usually the room that is the toilet serves as a shower as well.

Even prisoners in this country have a better life than these factory workers. At least they usually have a mattress, halfway decent food and basic sanitation.

Consultants I worked with made as much as 150$ per month and by Chinese standards that was a pretty good job. Still not enough to go out to dinner or buy many creature comforts.

A translator and asian based assistant for a US company made a whopping 500$ a month, but he didnt have a car.

Are we spoiled here? Do we have it too easy? Materialistic? With the current state of things I know more Americans are cutting back on buying things that are not so necessary. But would we cut back to the point where we were sleeping on a board? I doubt it.

So I wanted to give this snapshot of China so I can express how the mony you spend on products that are made in china go to support (or not) the people. If you buy products made in the USA you are keeping more money here, not paying for big ships to take products across the water, and you pay Americans at least a living wage, at least 800$ a month. A whole lot more than a "good" job in China.

If we are going to pull ourselves out of this economic predicament were in, its going to take some personal responsibility. Buy products made in America and provide jobs and a living wage for Americans!

Bad Dog Hats hopes to keep our products made in the USA, and do our part to keep America working.