Americans: do you care if it was made in America?

@panzade,

Ironically, American made Jeeps are about the only vehicles which interest me--one case where it think the Americans still do it better. Maybe if i tried that Toyota jeep . . .

1 Reply

@Setanta,

I know the Willys was a great Jeep. But I don't know if the Chrysler is.

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@panzade,

American Motors didn't do a bad job, either. Chrysler farmed out a lot of the parts production and assembly to Canada and Mexico, but i don't think it hurt the product. When i was in the army, the jeeps were manufactured under contract by Ford.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

the jeeps were manufactured under contract by Ford.

I didn't know that.

You must remember this Bill Mauldin drawing?

http://gocomics.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5f3053ef0112797c81aa28a4-500wi

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@panzade,

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I'm not going to spend all afternoon looking for it (i did try, though), but that cartoon is actually a cover of an earlier version he did after he joined the 45th Division (ANG) before the war. Willie and Joe (Joe being an Indian) were characters he created for the dividional newspaper before they went overseas.

A jeep is a jeep is a jeep, no matter who manufacturers it . . .

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@Setanta,

All I know is that my Dad had a copy of Up Front in our library and I read that book a zillion times. When Mauldin died in '03 I was quite distraught.

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I'm wearing a tshirt that was made in Nicaragua (sold here in the U.S.) and I don't feel particularly bad about it. I didn't know about ABC's effort or the $.18/day stat, though.

Typically, I don't usually look for stuff made in America, but I could probably manage to average spending that if it's helpful, and it looks like it would be.

Didn't Congress at one time pass some kind of "Buy American" law or bill or something? Wonder what ever happened to that.

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@panzade,

Look in Up Front again, i'm pretty sure that's where you'll find the original version of that cartoon. He published another book immediately after the war, Back Home, which you should be able to get through the library system which is well worth looking into.

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@Irishk,

Congress is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by corporate interests. Any such measure as that would be entirely toothless, and merely a sop thrown out to appeal to an electorate not given to looking closely into such matters.

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@Setanta,

Found it.

H.R.4553

21st Century Buy American Act

Quote:

To amend the Buy American Act with respect to certain waivers under that Act, to provide greater transparency regarding exceptions to domestic sourcing requirements, and for other purposes.

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@Irishk,

Ah yes, that one. That one really pissed off the Canadians. It still does. That's the only example of such congressional bluster which was actually put into effect . . . kinda . . . sorta . . .

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@Setanta,

That's bad. Our neighbors to the north are one of the few friends we have left. We are still friends, right?

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@Irishk,

Quote:

Didn't Congress at one time pass some kind of "Buy American" law or bill or something? Wonder what ever happened to that.

Duh.

Quote:

Russia, U.S. Most Protectionist in Group of 20
June 29, 2010, 7:08 AM EDT

By Sophie Leung

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Russia and the U.S. have the most protectionist trade measures among the Group of 20 leading industrialized countries, according annual rankings released today in Hong Kong by the International Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-29/russia-u-s-most-protectionist-in-group-of-20.html

Quote:

American and European Protectionism is Killing Poor Countries and Their People

by Johan Norberg

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3226

Quote:

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@Irishk,

Well, kinda, sorta, once again. Stephen Harper was good buddies with Baby Bush (although he didn't appreciate being called "Steve"--nobody in Canada calls him "Steve"). Harper now finally has a majority government (it's taken him six years), but, of course, conservative don't run the U.S. government right now. Harper is a Tory, in case you didn't know. He has been careful, though, not to offend Mr. Obama. I just heard him on the radio today praising Mr. Obama's position on the Mid-East. That must be making him crazy.

PET (Pierre Elliott Trudeau) once said that living next to the United States was like living next door to a sleeping elephant--you go about your own business but you don't make much noise. Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico from 1878 to 1911, said: "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States."

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@Irishk,

If a country is not of the bought off kind then the US is tolerated in the same fashion as a gangster group that the neighborhood can do nothing about.

The article is a bit dated, 2003. I could have quoted one from the 1920s or the 1950s, or the 80s and they all would have illustrated the same thing. The pillaging by the US has been going on for over a century, with no end in sight.

And instead of facing the facts and addressing the evil, we get corny jokes.

Quote:

Last week, on the day George Bush delivered his State of the Union address, the Pentagon received a visitor. A few hours before the president told the American people that “we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men”, General Carlos Ospina, head of the Colombian army, was shaking hands with his American counterpart. He had come to discuss the latest installment of US military aid.

...

The United States has been at war in Colombia for over 50 years. It has, however, hesitated to explain precisely whom it is fighting. Officially, it is now involved there in a “war on terror”. Before September 2001, it was a “war on drugs”; before that, a “war on communism”. In essence, however, US intervention in Colombia is unchanged: this remains, as it has always been, a war on the poor.

http://www.monbiot.com/2003/02/04/a-war-of-terror/

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I don't care where it is made as long as it is fair trade and people are paid fairly, but. with the Chinese government manipulating its own currency this will never be feasible. So our capitalism feeds off of these poor countries and the unfortunates like a slug. While more military weapons are accrued...

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@RexRed,

Quote:

with the Chinese government manipulating its own currency

Just one of the many myths of the American propaganda system.

Once Again, US Finds China Isn't Manipulating Its Currency

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/business/global/28currency.html?_r=1

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Congress is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by corporate interests.

What does organized labor own, the ammo?

Or do you consider them:

1) Mere bit players
2) Included in "corporate interests?"

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Americans: do you care if it was made in America?

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