Olivia Dykman

It is un-American to buy products made outside the USA. Besides the fact that our own economy could use Americans buying America, buying US-made products pretty much guarantees fair wage and non-sweatshop conditions. As Americans, in the economy we are in with a 9.7% unemployment rate, it is so essential to buy American made products and keep Americans working.

In addition, one of the most essential ways that a company can produce socially responsible products is to produce fair trade products. Fair trade products are made by workers who are given a sustainable wage, one they can actually live on. If it is not made in the USA, it is really hard to determine if a product is made in a socially responsible way.

A children’s clothing store called “All American Baby” produces clothing in America for American kids. The clothing is all ordered online, eliminating the cost of store overhead and most employee costs. The prices are comparable to the GAP, but are not dirt cheap. I can go to the Children’s Place and buy a $10 dress, or $5 shorts, but they are not American made. In fact, as I look on the tag of a pair of shorts my mother-in-law got our daughter from there, it says “made in China.” Makes you wonder how a $5 pair of shorts can be produced, imported, sold in a name brand store, manned by three employees, and still pay a fair wage. The answer is that it cannot.

Buying American-made products like “All American Baby” clothing is the most socially responsible way to shop, both because a fair wage is more likely and because our economy could use Americans being employed. It makes no sense to buy cheap, foreign made goods when your neighbor has been unemployed for five months.

Do you buy American? Or do you go for cheap?

Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal