WHO REALLY CREATES JOBS IN AMERICA?

The first thing that everyone should understand is that no matter who the President is,  he is not responsible for job creation.  George Bush wasn’t, and Barack Obama isn’t.   So, if the president isn’t responsible for job creation then who is? 

In my view, you, I and American Business are all responsible for the unemployment rate being so high, and the lack of job creation.  Don’t believe me?  Take a look around your house, and in your garage and it’s easy to see why the employment rate is so high.  Virtually everything that we buy these days is made in another country, and nothing that those folks use is made in America.  When I was a kid, I still remember people laughing if you wore a watch or had a radio or TV made in Japan.  Until the mid 1970’s, no self respecting American would be caught dead in a car made in Japan or any other country, the exception being the rich guy in the neighborhood having a Mercedes to show his status in life.   Take a moment and just walk through a portion of your house, pick up ten items.  I bet that none of the items were made in this country. 

You see, in America, both consumers and business like for things to be cheap.  Business wants cheap labor, and knowing that they can’t pay people slave wages in America they move their factories to other countries.  They’ll tell you that it’s because taxes in America are too high, yet a closer look shows that corporate taxes are lower today than they were 30 and 40 years ago.  If a company has a choice between hiring an American for $12 to $15 an hour, or moving that job to China or Taiwan for $2 or $3, there went your jobJ  We all continue to do business with the companies that have moved their call centers off shore for less money, while our bills for their products and services continue to go up.  Try to get service on your computer or cell phone, that guy named Sammy with the funny accent is actually in Pakistan or India.  I have to wonder what would happen if people decided to start doing without some of those products unless those companies brought the jobs back home?

It’s easy to blame businesses for moving jobs off shore, but you and I are just as much at fault as they are.  Yep, that’s right; you and I could create American jobs, if only we would be willing to spend a few pennies more to Buy American.  We don’t even look for American made any longer, we just look for lowest price, yet we know that products made in sweat shops by children overseas are almost always going to be cheaper than products made in America.  We love Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart loves shit made in China, yet for most of us if we need something, that’s our first (and usually) last stop. 

So, what can we do?  Well in the interest of helping my fellow Americans, this is what I’m going to do! First is that when I go to make my next purchase and every purchase from now on, I plan to look for a product made in America, I have changed my telephone, TV and internet to Comcast, because unlike Verizon,  their workers and call centers are in America.  Except for my motorcycle, my garage is filled with foreign made vehicles, but my pledge is that the next vehicle that I purchase will be an American brand, or if it’s a foreign brand, I will make sure that I check the VIN, and purchase one assembled in the United States.  Finally, I will refuse to support any politician who supports NAFTA or any of the other half dozen Free Trade Agreements; I will not support any candidate who has voted to allow tax breaks for businesses that have moved jobs to another country.

If we all commit to simply buying American and doing business with American companies, we can create jobs in America, because if you’re waiting on the Democrats and Republicans to do it, you may have a very, very long wait.