Recently I was looking for new bedlinens, when a Comment on a particular set stood out to me. It said:
"I'm always on the lookout for linen bedding as it seems difficult to find these days. This set fits the bill, I love the light weight of it, and it holds up well after repeated washings (mine are nearly 2 years old). Even though it's a good value it's a bit too steep to be able to purchase multiple sets in different colors so I took off a Value star for that. I would definitely recommend them though. My only complaint is that I wish they were made in the USA rather than imported."
This is something I increasingly see in Comments on all manner of websites... "I wish they were made in the USA". This particular comment made an impression because of the sentence that preceded it - that the consumer decked the company one star on the review for "Value" because they're too expensive for her to buy multiples!
When someone says "I wish this were made in America!" what they are really saying is "I want to bring manufacturing back to the US while paying the same that I pay today for things made in China so I can assuage my guilt about supporting the loss of manufacturing jobs without compromising my quality of life improvements that outsourcing has brought!"
Think about this for a moment: this consumer believes that a product that is rare and difficult to find, and is imported, is (still) too expensive for what she expects (wants) to pay - but she is asking the company to make a change to their supply chain that will increase the price.
Q: Why are goods made in China? In part because labor is cheaper, and the government is willing to raze an entire town and displace all the residents just to build a factory; because citizens have no rights.
Q: Why are goods NOT made in America? In part because labor is expensive, workers get benefits and contracts, and building a modern, automated factory is extremely expensive and taxes on businesses are high. Not to mention we are spoiled in paying nothing for almost everything.
Let's say that the company who makes these particular linens decides to in-source the manufacturing of them. The price is likely to increase by 50-100%, depending on the margins and source of origin of the raw materials used in the production process, even with reduced shipping costs for finished merchandise. Given that this item is already a 'rare' item, it's possible the price would increase by a factor of 2X or more... Is this woman going to buy the sheets at 1.5X or 2X the current price that she's already criticizing? You cannot have it both ways...
It's so easy to tell a company "Bring our manufacturing base back!"
But few people are willing to let their quality of life slip in order to achieve that outcome.
The AFL-CIO estimates 70% of WalMart products are made in China. WalMart improves the quality of life of millions of Americans. If you live paycheck to paycheck and have two children, WalMart is probably the difference between being able to buy new shoes and school supplies each fall, versus shopping at thrift stores. It means being able to add more dairy and meat to the family's diet, with the money saved on household expenses.
Consider that according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association, as quoted by the NY Times, "...about one-third of all apparel sold in the United States being produced in this country in 2000. By 2009 that amount had fallen to 2.1 percent...". According to the AFL-CIO, WalMart accounts for nearly 10% of China's total trade value with the US.
That most American of companies - the company that's raised the standard of living of millions, has done so on the backs of Chinese workers from rural areas whose own lives have been transformed by factory work, just as American workers' lives were transformed a century ago by the same back-breaking, low-paid work.
But today, American manufacturing runs robots on the shop floors, controlled by computers with automated programs to manage the production lines, and most importantly requires highly-skilled employees who little resemble the greasy factory workers of a century ago. We have the luxury to recoil in horror upon hearing tales of the horrendous conditions in Chinese factories... we think we are above those conditions. But it's only the patina of time separating us from them.
The truth is, even if we DO build factories and in-source, those factories are not ever going to employ all the displaced workers, because productivity has increased dramatically in the same time we've lost the manufacturing jobs - the loss of jobs is not all outsourcing, it's also a function of automation and the introduction of robotics and IT to the manufacturing process. Would you tell factories to be LESS productive? LESS efficient?
Instead of asking for something to be made in the USA, lobby your representatives and school boards to modernize our education system, to prepare students to run factories of the future - factories that require highly-skilled, tech-savvy human resources. And lobby them to prepare a generation to become entrepreneurs who will find creative ways to re-invent domestic manufacturing to create jobs for workers displaced by the automation of modern factories that don't need armies of workers.
Manufacturing as it existed in the US forty years ago is nothing but a mirage. Insourcing of manufacturing requires fundamental changes to our education system - something I've unfortunately not observed Americans to have the stomach for. Re-introduce apprentice programs for students who are not inclined to enter STEM fields, and stop pretending that every child can and should go to university - many are not interested, or not cut out for the academic lifestyle.
We cannot simultaneously cling to a National Geographic photo-essay version of American manufacturing that hasn't existed since the 60's, while denigrating young people who aspire to work in traditionally blue-collar industries. We need to get real about what is manufacturing in the 21st century - and about our self-image.
And in the mean time, if anyone does find an American-made source of superior-quality cheap linen bedsheets, do let me know!
Recommended Viewing: Gung Ho (movie)
Recommended Reading:
1. "The Face of American Manufacturing"
2. "A Reality Check..."
3. "American Manufacturing has Declines More than Most Experts Have Thought"
