One of the provisions of President Obama’s stimulus package was an emphasis on buying American, supported by labor unions and protectionists entities all across the land. Shoot, I try to do that, as long as I feel like I’m getting reasonable value for the dollars spent. My last three vehicles were a Buick, a Pontiac and now a GMC. There’s the rub my friend. I’m not sure where the Buick was assembled but I think the Bonneville was screwed together up in Canada, and I know it had a lot of foreign parts. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the headlamp clusters on that Buick and saw Magneti Marelli as the maker. Gee, I didn’t think I’d see that moniker ever again after getting rid of my last Fiat waaaaaaaaay back in the day.

See what I mean? So, how do you buy American anyway? The video above from Reason.TV asks this and other questions.

Reason.tv went to a Washington, D.C. event where business owners and activists learned how to lobby for more protectionist laws. “If you want to sell it here, build it here,” says one participant who referrs to those who ignore the “buy American” imperative as “uneducated, ignorant people.”

And shouldn’t we be patriotic purchasers? That’s what car ads, draped with Old Glory and heartland visuals, suggest. What could be more patriotic than buying a Jeep Patriot? With American automakers hurting so badly, that’s got to help America.

“That’s nonsense,” says George Mason University economist—and Cafe Hayek blogger—Donald Boudreaux.

“The Jeep Patriot, despite it’s name is actually less American than some Toyota products. It’s literally impossible—at least in any practical sense—to ‘buy American.’”

Boudreaux argues that Americans should buy whatever products they choose; neither guilt nor laws should push them to buy American. “The thing that is most distinctively American is freedom. To insist that Americans should not be free to buy good from foreigners that’s very anti-American.”

At one point in time WalMart made a name for itself with a plethora of Made in America goods. However, their constant push on their vendors to lower their prices so that WalMart could continue to be our nation’s retail low-price leader forced those same suppliers to go overseas where super-low labor rates and less government regulation allowed them to meet the retail giant’s pricing goals. That cycle continues to this day, with China now being too expensive a labor market for many goods — that manufacturing now going to Vietnam and Malaysia and elsewhere.

As a VP of design and manufacturing for a sporting goods company in the 90s, I witnessed our attempt to make minimal purchases of foreign commodity components and combine them with higher-level parts made here and then to assemble skates in Los Angeles — it didn’t work. There was no way to compete. Changing tactics, with our lowest priced items made in China and the upper level lines in Thailand, we finally could offer goods to the US and world markets at a decent profit margin. You see, the consumer was not willing to pay that 10%-20% tax, the extra cost of making them in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Same with TVs and such. Ask yourself this question. That flat screen you’re eying at Best Buy for two grand and change — would you be willing to pay, oh say, $2,350.00 instead, as long as the majority of parts and its assembly were here in the U.S.? How about for every other item that you purchased this last year for home and business? Of course, the answer is no — you couldn’t possibly afford to do that. Maybe on a single item, or at least a few, but not overall. Still, I do have a mental disconnect with Cuisinart products that are Made in China. Remember when Made in Japan was a pejorative instead of an emblem of superiority?

Sticky wickets my friends — sticky wickets!

[H/t: Hot Air]

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Tags: Buy American, President Obama's stimulus package, protectionism