Country of Origin Labeling. A possible solution to our floundering economy?

[Johnnny5]

Recently there has been quite a push to "Buy American" and "Buy Local". The idea being that buying more domestically produced items will help domestic growers and manufacturers. It's a philosophy that I agree with, and try to abide by as much as possible. My question is why has there not been much of an effort to increase the visibility and therefore, the awareness of the country origin on the products we buy?
When you walk into any of the big box stores [[be it Walmart, Sears, Etc.), there are aisles and aisles of boxed items plastered with labeling. Would it not be a relatively easy, and sensible idea to require that country of origin labels be placed on the the front of the packaging instead of hidden on the back or bottom? What about including the flag of the country from which the item was imported? If Walmart shoppers were forced to face the the communist starred flag on the front of their children's toys would this be enough of incentive for some of them to look elsewhere? Would it also be a way to reduce our trade deficit without resorting to increased trade tariffs?
Any thoughts?

[lilpup]

Good luck fighting the retailers' lobby.

[Sstashmoo]

Let me simplify this for you, if it's in Walmart, it wasn't made here.

[wash_man]

I agree, but it is too late for some items. Try to but something electronic made in the U.S. Let's start by bring back the big ticket items. Like the "American" made Cadillac SRX that's made in Mexico [[previous model was built in Lansing) or the "American" Fusion made in Mexico. We've had similar discussions here before and someone always says: "At least the profits come back here" to which I say BIG FUCKING DEAL. I've been visiting a Big3 plant lately for my job. I'm sure the thousands of people that work there will feel better knowing that "at least the profits come back here" if/when their plant is closed and the operations move to Mexico. GM is on the right track by bringing the production of the Chevy Aveo from Korea to Orion Township. As Johnnny5 said, most people don't realize where all the products come from. They are either too lazy to investigate before purchasing or just don't care. I recently had a conversation with a co-worker. He was complaining that he wasn't getting much over time in our plant. He attributed it to "all the foreign cars on the road." I tried to bite my tongue but I couldn't help but ask him if he knew where his Aveo was built. He didn't know it was built in Korea and was red-face when I informed him. Again, he spouted "at least the money goes to GM". Blah blah blah. I'd rather he bought a U.S. made Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Mercedes, BMW, etc. At least the workers there are paying local, sate and federal taxes as well as contributing to Medicare and Social Security. THEY are contributing to our economy. What the hell did the Koreans that built his Aveo contribute?

[Johnnny5]

Let me simplify this for you, if it's in Walmart, it wasn't made here.

Actually, I can tell you that Walmart does sell quite a few American made products, but I agree they sell tons of imported items as well. I'm a die hard label reader, and I keep track of the country of origin on every single non food item I purchase. In the last week I've purchased Rubbermaid storage containers, Berkley Gulp fishing tackle, Fram oil filters and Scotch packing tape all made here in the U.S, and all purchased at Walmart .

[lilpup]

Start small and farther away, wash_man, because there's really more to be gained that way - toys, clothing, consumer electronics - contributors to our trade deficit with China. The North American products have less impact because we trade back with Canada and Mexico.

I'd almost bet Apple is the single largest driver of our Chinese trade deficit since all their stuff is made overseas. The USA: pummeled to death by iPods.

[gnome]

I bought a set of tires a week or two ago and it was difficult finding a Made In USA tire. I was told at Sears, Belletire, Metro25, Firestone that only speciality tires are now made in the US and that almost all tires are being made in Indonesia, China or Mexico ... excluding european Michilens. At Belletire the guy behind the counter told me I could get a nice Toyo that was made in California but is China owned.

Finally was able to find a set of Ohio made Goodyears 195/65 r15 at a Goodyear store. However they were on close-out, so while I got a good deal on them they might be the last of a kind.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "Actually, I can tell you that Walmart does sell quite a few American made products,"

Oh I was speaking in general terms as usual. I'm sure they have a few US made products, but go by margin, I'll bet it's in the single digit percentile vicinity. This is just totally unacceptable.

[gnome]

A couple of months ago, there was an article in the Metro Times about a radio active cheese grater. Seems that the chinese melted down a bunch of radio active metal and made consumer items from it. This goes along with the drywall mess where weird substances were added to gypsum, the pvc tubing that had additives which broke down the chemical bond of the plastic, the lead in toys, the poison in milk, counterfeit everything ...

in short, if it says, Made in China, it is to be avoided.

[gnome]

I googled radioactive cheese grater and this was the first listing:

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43576

Who is in charge of protecting Americans from products made from radioactively tainted metal?
The answer: No one.
Officials with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, all said their agencies are troubled by the spread of contaminated metal and items made from it, a Scripps Howard News Service investigation shows.
Several of the agencies play a tangential part in grappling with the issue. But none have the authority to do much about it. As a result, no national accounting exists of the scope of the problem. No one agency is in charge of reporting, tracking or analyzing incidents involving tainted metal products, or in making sure they are properly disposed of.
And when such an incident occurs, the absence of that oversight becomes clear.
Case in point: The discovery late last summer of a radioactive EKCO cheese grater at a Flint, Mich., scrap plant. The Chinese-made grater was laced with the isotope Cobalt-60, and was giving off the equivalent to a chest X-ray every 36 hours.
Estimated to have been in circulation for as long as a decade, the grater likely was four to five times more radioactive when it was made. EKCO's parent company, World Kitchen, of Rosemont, Ill., described the incident as isolated and found no need to issue a recall, spokesman Bryan Glancy said.
It was not the only grater found. NRC documents show that another Cobalt-60-tainted cheese grater had turned up in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2006. The reports do not indicate what brand of grater it was or if it was related to the one that surfaced in Michigan.
Correspondence between agencies obtained by Scripps Howard News Service through state and federal Freedom of Information requests, as well as interviews with officials involved in the aftermath of the discovery, show how disjointed and uncertain the response was -- and how little enforcement power they have.
The cheese grater, in effect, became a regulatory hot potato.
Gregg Dempsey, the EPA investigator on the Michigan grater case, felt frustrated that he lacked the authority even to press World Kitchen to supply more information, much less issue a recall.
Dempsey said he couldn't determine the most basic facts about the radioactive grater: When it was made, where it was made or how many other radioactive graters are out there.
"I'm trying to get World Kitchen to do something," Dempsey said in an interview. "I don't want to tell them how little enforcement authority I have. I wish there was better regulatory muscle."
The amount of radioactivity in a lone cheese grater would not likely be a serious health threat, state and federal officials said. But items emitting low doses of radiation are a growing health concern because prolonged radiation exposure -- even at relatively low levels -- appears to increase the risk of cancer.
After the grater triggered a radiation detector Aug. 25, 2008, at the Genesee Recycling facility in Flint, employees notified Michigan authorities. Three days later, state officials responded and tested the grater's radiation level, said Dempsey, who works in the EPA's Radiation and Indoor Environments National Lab.
Michigan officials asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for help investigating, but the federal agency said it had no authority to do so.
The NRC's responsibility extends only to radioactive materials licensed with the agency, according to spokesman David McIntyre. Such licenses are sought by firms and others that want to use radioactive isotopes for research or business.
Because the grater was never meant to become radioactive, it was not licensed, and thus was not on NRC turf. Even if the grater had registered a dangerously higher level of radiation, the NRC would still have no authority over the case. "We would have had no jurisdiction," McIntyre said.
So, the NRC -- created by Congress in 1974 to ensure the safe use of radiation -- passed the potato to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
But the EPA, too, denied responsibility for radioactive consumer products.
Correspondence obtained through the Freedom of Information Act shows an oversight breakdown. In an Oct. 22 e-mail to colleagues, EPA health physicist Sara DeCair wrote that no agency is protecting against consumer products tainted with radiation.
"EPA's company line would be that this is not regulated by anyone," DeCair wrote.
A month after the cheese grater surfaced in Michigan, Jack Barnette, chief of the EPA's radiation and indoor air division for the Midwest, told colleagues he didn't know which federal agency should be responsible.
"I'm not sure what EPA's role should be in this, or where the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or Customs fits in," Barnette wrote in a Sept. 23 e-mail to colleagues.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission does not have jurisdiction over radioactive materials and lists the NRC as the agency that does, according to its Web site. Commission spokeswoman Arlene Flecha declined to comment. Department of Energy spokeswoman Casey Ruberg said her agency also has no authority, and pointed to the EPA as the place that does.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, tries to intercept radioactive consumer products at U.S. seaports, airports and border crossings, but has no authority over material inside the country, said Patrick Simmons, director of non-intrusive inspection for the agency.
Echoing officials in the other agencies, the EPA's Barnette said in his e-mail that he thought radioactive consumer products could be a national problem.
"We need to do something to protect people from unnecessary exposures to this product [[if, indeed this isn't just a one of a kind situation)," he wrote.
His EPA colleague, Dempsey, agreed, and said Congress needs to determine which agency should oversee protecting consumers and businesses from irradiated metal products.
"It's a Congress issue. Between the NRC and the EPA, there are some issues that are not covered well. This is one of them," Dempsey said. "We're dealing with this on an emergency response level. It shouldn't be that way."
E-mail Isaac Wolf at wolfi[[at)shns.com.

go_figure

[Retroit]

Consumers don't look where products are made; they look at the price. We need to put a higher import tax [[tariff) on foreign goods. This is the only effective way of leveling the playing field.

I bought a set of tires a week or two ago and it was difficult finding a Made In USA tire. I was told at Sears, Belletire, Metro25, Firestone that only speciality tires are now made in the US and that almost all tires are being made in Indonesia, China or Mexico ... excluding european Michilens. At Belletire the guy behind the counter told me I could get a nice Toyo that was made in California but is China owned.

Finally was able to find a set of Ohio made Goodyears 195/65 r15 at a Goodyear store. However they were on close-out, so while I got a good deal on them they might be the last of a kind.

That's strange, because I bought a set of Kelly tires [[made at the world's largest tire factory in Fayetteville, North Carolina) at Belle Tire last year. BTW, you can tell where a tire was made by looking at the tire code on the tire. After "DOT", there are two numbers or letters that tell you what plant the tire was made at. Then check here: [[http://www.tirebusiness.com/subscrib...ml?letter=zero) to decode.

[Patrick]

Cadillac SRX that's made in Mexico

Assembly is only one stage of many in the creation of a vehicle. Design, R & D, engineering, testing, fabrication, distribution, and other white collar efforts and more. Let's not look at the end product's "Made In" tag because it can be misleading for many items.

[Mikeg]

The old Cadillac SRX was designed on the same underpinnings as the CTS and STS sedans. It never quite achieved the market share success that the Lansing Grand River plant was tooled for. Therefore, GM redesigned the new SRX on a different platform that could not be built at LGR and that is why it is built in Mexico. The production capacity at LGR previously allocated to the SRX is being given over to the new CTS coupe and sport wagon models. LGR will have a total of four different models to build, whereas it only built three when it still had the old SRX.

[MCP-001]

Actually, we already have that law on the books.

It's been there since '02.

More information about it can be found here.

It's currently limited to food products only.

Now as to our Chi-Comm friends, our non-representing "representatives" will continually turn a blind eye to their manufacturing foibles because of the fact that they [[read: Congress) has mortgaged our future up over our eyeballs, and they don't want to antagonize them in any way.

Just be glad that the cheese grater incident is the only thing that was radioactive.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "Just be glad that the cheese grater incident is the only thing that was radioactive."

-that we know of.. It's not like every home has a Geiger counter. There is no telling what we are being, and have been exposed to.

[East Detroit]

I read "A Year Without 'Made in China'" about a family trying to go a year without buying anything made in China.

http://www.amazon.com/Year-Without-M.../dp/0470116137

It was very, very difficult. I try to do the same myself and it is quite difficult... like trying to buy stuff that doesnt have high fructose corn syrup in it. However, it is satisfying when you do find stuff made here, like New Balance that are Made in the USA or Duracell that are Made in the USA.... but you do have to look because a brand itself doesnt indicate where it is made anymore.

[wash_man]

The old Cadillac SRX was designed on the same underpinnings as the CTS and STS sedans. It never quite achieved the market share success that the Lansing Grand River plant was tooled for. Therefore, GM redesigned the new SRX on a different platform that could not be built at LGR and that is why it is built in Mexico. The production capacity at LGR previously allocated to the SRX is being given over to the new CTS coupe and sport wagon models. LGR will have a total of four different models to build, whereas it only built three when it still had the old SRX.

So you are saying the decision was made in the design stage. Stop right there, make another decision for another platform. What about the "underpinnings" of the Acadia/Enclave/Outlook? Since the Outlook is gone the plant in Delt Township should have had capacity. The assembly could have moved across town, not out of the country. I realize the platform dictates location, but why can't the platform be chosen based on location, especiall when they are similar? I'm not buying it. The SRX should have stayed in the States. It's a foreign car in my book.

BTW I spent a lot of time at LGR during the launch of the first CTS. It was hailed as state of the art and could handle multiple platforms.

[gnome]

That's strange, because I bought a set of Kelly tires [[made at the world's largest tire factory in Fayetteville, North Carolina) at Belle Tire last year. BTW, you can tell where a tire was made by looking at the tire code on the tire. After "DOT", there are two numbers or letters that tell you what plant the tire was made at. Then check here: [[http://www.tirebusiness.com/subscrib...ml?letter=zero) to decode.

Thanx for the decoder ring, I'll be sure to keep it at the ready when I buy tires in 4 or 5 years. I agree Retroit, it does seem strange the guy at Belletire told me what he did. I certainly would have considered Kellys, but again, I'm just reporting my experience in trying to buy American made tires. oh, mine are stamped Made in USA btw.

You are correct that most folks don't care about where something is made; that folks are just looking for the lowest price possible. I'd have to put myself in that same catagory until a couple of yrs ago. Now I try to buy American - or at least North American - whenever possible.

The cheese grater thing, the drywall wall thing, the pet food thing, the pvc pipe thing ... all those things just add up to the questionable standards the Chinese have regarding safety of their products. They just don't care, will cut any corner, make any shortcut just to sell their poorly made crapolla.

[Mikeg]

LGR..... was hailed as state of the art and could handle multiple platforms.

LGR was "state of the art" but it could only build five different body styles of the Sigma platform. The location and size of the LGR body shop building was constrained by the existing old manufacturing buildings [[since demolished) on that site and therefore it only has room to build the underbody subassemblies for a single platform.

BTW, do you have one of these?
Attachment 4968

[Gistok]

A couple of months ago, there was an article in the Metro Times about a radio active cheese grater. Seems that the chinese melted down a bunch of radio active metal and made consumer items from it. This goes along with the drywall mess where weird substances were added to gypsum, the pvc tubing that had additives which broke down the chemical bond of the plastic, the lead in toys, the poison in milk, counterfeit everything ...

in short, if it says, Made in China, it is to be avoided.

Gnome... look at the positive side.... the cheese sliced from that grater should have a shelf life [[or in radioactive terms "half life") of 10,000 years!

[gnome]

for those who are interested here is a site that purports to list products that Made in USA. I'll add that it is very clumsy and appears to be designed by Ray Charles, but it did lead me to a couple of place that make blue jeans. Blue jeans happen to be a real sore point with me since both Levis and Wranglers are made overseas and just have gotten crappier over the last 15 years.

http://www.usstuff.com/
http://www.usstuff.com/jeans.htm

[wash_man]

gnome, check these out http://www.longhornjeans.com/ I found them on http://www.madeinusa.org/

[Papasito]

Re: GM
most GM products are made of Chinese, Mexican and Southeast Asian parts and assembled in Canada and Mexico. GM isn't very pro-USA. Most of their operations are outside our borders. They gave up on the USA a long time ago.

As far as keeping things at home, as long as we have no import taxes and permit the entire world to throw thier products into our market without paying a dime to Uncle Sam to do so, they will be able to beat us on price every time.

Putting Americans back in the mix starts with the Government leveling the playing field.
Bring back the import tax.
Otherwise, with the flood gates open, eventually American workers must eventually earn third world wages in order for companies to compete with products from third world countries.

It's inevitable.

[biggus]

Putting Americans back in the mix starts with the Government leveling the playing field.

The government should look into abolishing the business tax and replacing it with a national sales tax or VAT tax. It would have to be revenue neutral of course, but I believe that this would be a good way to get our trade imbalance in order. It works like this, the Ford Motor company would pay no tax on any of their plants or equipment in the US. A Ford car sold in the US would have a sales tax paid by the person purchasing the car at the dealership. The overall cost of the car should be no different. Now if a Toyoda manufactured in Japan is imported and sold in the US the same percentage sales tax would be paid. You could go one step further, and start a US soverign wealth fund with the tax revenue. These funds would be used as low interest loans to small business start ups.

There has been so much outsourcing of services in the past ten years, a VAT tax would be the best solution, but the most difficult to implement. Think of all the outsourcing done by GM.

[MoparDan]

for those who are interested here is a site that purports to list products that Made in USA. I'll add that it is very clumsy and appears to be designed by Ray Charles, but it did lead me to a couple of place that make blue jeans. Blue jeans happen to be a real sore point with me since both Levis and Wranglers are made overseas and just have gotten crappier over the last 15 years.

http://www.usstuff.com/
http://www.usstuff.com/jeans.htm

Thanks for the link! I'm trying my best to buy "American/North American" as well. For instance, I don't frequent Harbor Freight much anymore unless I absoutely have to. They may have low prices, but the quality isn't much to brag about. In the past I'd bought a DA & jitterbug sanders which came with two settings: off & full blast. The adjustment dial was pretty much for decoration. For what I'm doing, it's fine. But if I want something with slightly more precision I'll look elsewhere. I can't swear that every single tool or item they sell is made in China, but for the pricing, a friend put it best, "Slave labor gets shit done".

Concerning Levi's, I fully agree. I routinely passed one of their closed plants when driving to Lackland/Kelly AFB for reserve duty. Granted, it can't compete with the industrial ruins there, but it's vacant & the parking lot is slowly being overtaken by nature. Pretty sad they moved operations overseas because the people there were making probably just over minimum wage on average.