I would love to see an article encouraging people to spend some of their dollars locally, and to specifically buy Made in America products. The average person spends about $700 for Christmas, and if we spent $64 of that on Made in America products, we could create 200,000 jobs. (That is according to the ABC News economists, who calculated what a significant impact buying Made in America would have.) The info is on the ABC News website.
Unfortunately, only one company in Nipomo is listed as a suggestion of what/where to buy Made in America products locally. Perhaps people haven’t heard about it, but I like the idea of we, the people, helping to create jobs. The politicians are too busy fighting to create jobs, and the large corporations are sitting on piles of cash, reluctant to spend it on new hires.
Occupy Wall Street has a lot of good things to say, but at this point I don’t see them producing any tangible results. This is an opportunity to make a difference. I’d love to see the unemployment rate drop. Who knows what the real impact would be, but why not buy Made in America anyway? Why not buy locally?
I love shopping online, too, but these are your neighbors we’re talking about. Why not try it? Talk about a good feeling, having the Christmas spirit of doing something for someone else. It’s not like you’re giving the money away—you get $64 of merchandise, but it’s merchandise that workers in the good ol’ U.S. of A. made.
So, Central Coast consumers, are you in?
This article appears in Dec 8-15, 2011.