I do buy American whenever I can. I pay more for American products sometimes because I know someone somewhere in America is working and pumping money back into our economy. I bought a Ford made in Kentucky. Got a great deal on it and it has been a great car. Since I have been buying American products, I have noticed that they are generally of higher quality.

I also vacation in America. An average citizen could spend their life seeing all the great places in this country and never need to go anywhere else.

We need to get back to appreciating each other and our fellow citizens. If we are waiting for others to build some sort of wonderful utopian worldwide economy with us, we are going to wait a very long time and get our clocks cleaned as well.

Utopian economists and government officials suck

“I do buy American whenever I can. I pay more for American products sometimes because I know someone somewhere in America is working and pumping money back into our economy.”

Let’s take the above quote a step further:

“I do buy Californian whenever I can. I pay more for Californian products sometimes because I know someone somewhere in California is working and pumping money back into our economy.”

“I do buy Los Angeles whenever I can. I pay more for Los Angeles products sometimes because I know someone somewhere in Los Angeles is working and pumping money back into our economy.”

“I do buy Main Street whenever I can. I pay more for Main Street products sometimes because I know someone somewhere on Main Street is working and pumping money back into our economy.”

“I do buy 1234 Main Street whenever I can. I pay more for 1234 Main Street products sometimes because I know someone somewhere at 1234 Main Street America is working and pumping money back into our economy.”

“I do buy from me whenever I can. I pay more for my products sometimes because I know someone somewhere I am working and pumping money back into my economy.”

Congratulations to Prof. Izyumov (and to our host for quoting him). Swiftian indeed.

OK, OK, I'll cut out the French Champagne and the French Fries.

But if I stopped buying Chinese imports, my house would be bare.

Aren't most or at least a significant percentage of Japanese cars in the US made here anyway? And BMW has a plant in Birmingham. At least for cars, I don't think it matters unless you think it's important to have American corporations reinvest the money in America--oh! you mean they invest overseas too?

Lynne is the first person I have heard that used Ford and great car in the same sentence.

Can I buy a Volvo, seeing as how it's owned by Ford?

The trouble with satire is that I suspect that many people will not realize that it is satire. Even with the hint inherent in "A modest proposal", many will miss the point, few having read Swift. They will nod their heads, saying, he's right, but that will not cause them to change either their behavior (fortunately), or their ideas about outsourcing (unfortuantely).

If this is satire it certainly fooled more people (onthis blog anyway) than Orson Welles' War of the Worlds!

If it isn't satire, then the 30 million job losses calculation is one of the single faultiest economic calculations I have ever seen. ALmost laughably so.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who actually believe this kind of stuff. This sort of faulty economics was at the root of the Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930.

It's darn good satire; the best satire hooks you and makes you wonder.

"...no more foreign trips either ..." I know this is a satire, nevertheless, I suggest every American should go overseas at least once in their lifetime to rejuvenate their Americanism. I went overseas 3 times in last decade, went to England, southern China, Munich, and Vienna. Every time, after a week or so, I wanted to come home. I missed things such as decent restrooms that you didn't have to pay to use. I missed American stores where you could return/exchange your purchases without being yelled at. I missed having refills for my coffee, and extra hot water for my tea. I missed those little tongs/wax papers which you used to pick up rolls in a bakery/buffet. I missed using credit cards instead of paying cash to see museums. I missed our banks, most of which opened until 5:00 pm and didn't close an hour in the middle of the day for lunch, unlike the Deutsche Bank which closed from 12:30-1:30 for lunch, and closed at 3:30 for the day. I missed going shopping on Sundays. Europeans can mock us or loathe us, but we are who we are, and we have what they don't have. And I feel good about it.

While this satirical piece was meant to ridicule people fighting outsourcing it is not quite fair at that. Imports are always balanced (well, almost balanced) with exports and as Americans buy foreign goods so do a lot of foreigners (buy American goods). Same goes for tourism.

But the problem with outsourcing is that as American companies send their jobs overseas, NO (or almost no) foreign companies send their jobs back here.

But the problem with outsourcing is that as American companies send their jobs overseas, NO (or almost no) foreign companies send their jobs back here.

Cough.. splutter... What? Do you have any idea how many times we've seen Canadian companies paying decent wages have outsourced their production to the southern US states with no minimum wage and union-hostile legislation?

It may have changed a little bit now, but for *decades* the southern US has been to Canada what China is now to the USA.