Buy American not really good for America

I hate populist gut reaction politics.    This whole Buy American thing in response to the recession is just plain silly and in some cases spites the nose the feeds the something or other…..   L I N K

“There are some real downsides to Buy American,” Brady said in an interview. “It delays projects. We have to look at what jobs we are losing.”

It’s appropriate to require that the stimulus funds be spent to help restore American jobs, said Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union. Justin Kitsch, a spokesman for North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat who was a “Buy American” sponsor, also defended the measure.

“The recipients of economic recovery funds will work through the process as quickly as possible so more Americans can be put back to work,” Kitsch said. The “goal with the Buy American provision is to create jobs.”

I think platforms need to be even, but that trade should be allowed to freely occur.   IE; we in Canada have a higher tax rate because we have things like Medicare (allegedly) and public services wheras countries like China or India don’t really do the union thing or take care of their water etc to the same degree.

That creates  a very unlevel playing field that has decimated employment and life as we knew it in a single generation.

I listened this week to a radio talk show guy ranting how Walmart has increased the purchasing power of the average person, but he didn’t mention that the Walmart effect had also changed our whole society in that we are now flooded by products from places, mostly China that have unfair competitive edges that allow them to sell products to us so cheaply.

If you lost your $65K per year job and now make $11 per hour does it really matter if those gym socks cost a $1 less?

What do you think Cornwall?

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