Re: "buy American" & family war sacrifices

Eric,

First of all, I believe in Free Trade, completely Free Trade. Things
should find a free market for distribution. If it is really free, there
will be maximum efficiency and maximum productivity. The Great
Depression was brought exacerbated exponentially by the various nations
raising tarriff barriers.

But secondly, there can be lots of reasons to buy or not to buy,
including social or personal ones, and if you want to buy American,
that's fantastic! More power to you!

For me, this is also Free Trade, and also shows the worth you might
assign to some of the history and economic power that goes along with
the product. Generally, the same people who today advocate "engaging"
Cuba and China in trade in order to "bring about change", for example,
are the same ones who some ten years ago were boycotting goods made in
South Africa in order to "bring about change". It may show where your
values *really* are. Boycott Kathie Lee (or whoever) for using
sweatshops, but buy Chinese where they use prison labor (documented) and
also wait to execute Christian and other prisoners when an organ order
comes in and force women to perform abortions on the second child.

Therefore those who prefer "Fair Trade" have a good point too. We as a
whole as IT folks, not all, but myself yes, are paying the price in
money, resources and aggravation for helping sustain the M$ monopoly to
now. When corporations gobble up patents, or in unison do things like
make sure light bulbs will burn out after x hours, or cars will start
failing at warranty plus one mile, this is *not* Free Trade either, for
example.

By the way, it is also not Free Trade to make sure you can't make more
than *somebody* thinks you should in your trading.

-My 2 cents
Alan



----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Lehti" <Eric.Lehti@amb-adv.com>
To: "Paul Nelson" <pnelson@braxton-reed.com>;
<p_nelson-br@pop.inil.com>; <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 2:16 AM
Subject: "buy American" & family war sacrifices


|
| >Dear Paul Nelson,
|
| There will be no Midrange jobs for you and me if the "Buy American"
model
| succeeds.  You and I will be out of a job, for the reasons noted
below.
|
| I empathize very much with the sacrifices your family members have
made and
| the suffering that they endured during the war.  It is a very sad but
true
| situation that people of every nation and ethnic descent have been
both the
| recipients of and perpetrators of atrocities.  People on both sides of
any
| conflict claim that the other side is the bad one.
|
| With regard to the "Buy American" position, I notice that its strong
| proponents want to sell their product globally, exporting it to other
| countries, while encouraging Americans to "buy American".
Essentially, "I
| will not buy from you (a foreigner), but I want you (the foreigner) to
buy
| from me."  That concept cannot succeed except in the very, very short
term.
|
| If you sell your product to people in another country, you expect to
be
| paid in U.S. dollars.  You don't want euros or yen because these are
| worthless to you.  But how is it that your international customer has
U.S.
| dollars in the first place?  Most likely because Americans purchased
| foreign goods from him with U.S. dollars.  Other countries are not
| permitted to print U.S. currency (that is called counterfeiting).  So
if
| you expect to export your product to international customers and get
paid
| with genuine (non-counterfeit) U.S. dollars, you need to accept that
this
| can occur only if LOTS of Americans are "buying FOREIGN".
|
| For thousands of years many nations have tried to seal their borders
to
| international commerce or limit it by imposing high tariffs, trying to
| protect their own economies and encourage their citizens to "buy
American"
| or "buy within my own country".  I am not aware of any countries that
have
| succeeded in this attempt long-term.  Nor am I aware of any companies
that
| refuse to sell to customers outside the U.S. borders.  (In fact, it is
| well-known that U.S. weapons manufacturers sell American-made weapons
to
| its enemies.  Saddam Hussein and other enemies of America buy American
| goods from eager sellers.)
|
| In conclusion, I believe that each of us should accept the fact that
"buy
| American" is an unsustainable and unworkable model, unless we choose
to go
| back to the pre-pre-pre-industrial era when no ships sailed the seas,
no
| camels crossed the deserts, each bearing useful goods desired by
people in
| other locales.  There can be no silk, no rubber, no tea, no spices, no
| this, no that, nor anything but what you grow and manufacture in your
back
| yard if you and others "buy Amercan".
| Respectfully submitted (and with condolences for the suffering your
family
| experienced),
| Eric Lehti
|
| = = = = = = Your earlier message is noted below = = = = = = =
| I don't know about you guys, but I DO look at the source of the
products,
| and try to funnel as much money toward American business. I travel a
lot,
| and you should see the looks on the faces of the car rental clerks
when I
| insist on GM or Ford products. The argument that Toyotas or Hondas are
just
| as good if not better than American cars stops abruptly with two
words:
| "Pearl Harbor".
| Maybe I am the way I am because I was raised in a family where one
uncle
| (Airborne) parachuted into France the night of June 5, 1944. Another
uncle
| (Marines) barely survived the Bataan death march, and another was at
| Honolulu's Mitchell Field in the Army Air Corps on December 7, 1941.
My
| father (too nearsighted for air combat) spent the war training B-17
| maintenance crews. My former father in law and his brother were both
on
| ships in Pearl Harbor the same day. These men passed on to me the
belief
| that one should forgive freely but remember forever.
| Make a stand. Buy American.
| Paul Nelson
| 630-327-8665 Cell
| 708-923-7354 Home
| pnelson@braxton-reed.com
|
|
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