  
 Supporting American-Made Products and Services from American-Owned Companies 
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How to Buy American by Roger Simmermaker
Buy American! It is more easily said than done. What most people normally think of when you mention the term "Buy American" is going to the store, looking at the product label to find out where the product is made. But there is more to buying American than just made in USA. There are actually three parts to the "Buy American" picture.
The first part is ownership. This is the most important part. Why? Because this determines where the profits will go and where the taxes are paid.
The second and next most important part is where the product is made. This tells us where the manufacturing or assembly takes place - where the primary jobs are located.
Third and least important is parts. This indicates where the secondary jobs are located.
But why do I say that ownership is the most important part? Because ownership equals control, and control equals sovereignty. America must be able to control her own destiny, and she simply cannot if her manufacturing base is under foreign control.
To understand the angle from which this book comes from, you must shake your traditional way of thinking that Made in USA is the only thing that matters. You must realize that there are other parts that make up the "Buy American" picture, with ownership being the most important. The reasons why will be provided in this introduction.
But why did I not write about American made products instead? The answer is because you don't necessarily need a book to tell you which products are American made. You can look at the tag, label, or product itself to find that information. But we do need some source to reveal which products (and services) are American owned, because foreign owned companies will almost always list the address of their US subsidiaries on the package. This tricks us into thinking we are buying an American product, when in fact we may be buying a foreign product.
Consider, for example, two similar products. Gold Medal flour and Pillsbury flour. Both list Minneapolis, MN right on the package. So they are both American companies, right? Wrong! Pillsbury is a US subsidiary of a foreign company based in England by the name of Grand Metropolitan PLC, but you won't find that information listed anywhere. Grand Metropolitan PLC owns such familiar brand names as Totino's pizza, Old El Paso Mexican foods, and Haagen-Dazs ice cream, and they also own Burger King restaurants and Pearle Vision centers. Gold Medal flour, on the other hand, is owned by General Mills, which is actually an American company ultimately based in Minneapolis, MN. So, you can see how deceiving all this can be
My goal is to provide the consumer with ownership information on a wide range of products and services. By combining the two together, American owned and American made, we can have a powerful impact on the US economy. And keep in mind that when you are dealing with services, such as hotels and restaurants, the only factor to consider, since it is a service, is ownership.
But for now, try to imagine all products as cars. This is the category where people are most knowledgeable when it comes to knowing where the company headquarters are located for a particular brand. Toyotas, Nissans, and Hondas are Japanese cars. BMW's and Volkswagen's are German cars, and so on. If you transfer this type of thinking to other products listed in this book, you will find that Jergens is a Japanese soap, and Calgon is a German soap. They may be made in the United States, but they are still foreign brands, just like a Honda made in the United States is still a Japanese car.
Much like in the way people in a small town enjoy patronizing their locally owned businesses to keep profits inside their community, as opposed to the chain stores which will send profits outside their community, we must patronize American companies in an attempt to keep profits generating within our national borders, as opposed to foreign owned companies, who will send profits outside our national borders.
Also, US Companies earnings and profits are distributed to American stockholders. It is the shares of these companies that make up many of our retirement funds and the funds for our children's education. And American companies are more likely to donate to charities for the benefits of this country. So no matter how you slice it, we stand to profit when American companies do well.
There are four combinations the consumer is faced with when buying a product. The combinations are:
1. American owned, American made
I have listed these possible combinations in the order that they will best benefit the US economy and US sovereignty. I think we can all agree that combination number one is most desirable, and combination number four is least desirable, but why is American owned, foreign made, a better combination than foreign owned, American made? Isn't it important to buy American made goods? The answer is "Yes", but only when that good is manufactured by an American company. Why? I can give you several reasons.
Foreign companies that have built or acquired factories here can shut them down and move them just as quick. Why? Because they have the ownership, they have the control, and they have the sovereignty. This is even more likely since the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in January of 1994, which reduces and eventually eliminates trade barriers between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Some of the companies closing plants in the United States and moving them elsewhere to take advantage of cheap labor are American owned, but not all of them. For example, JVC recently closed its TV manufacturing plant in Elmwood Park, New Jersey; and relocated it in Mexico affecting nearly 200 jobs.
The American TV industry is basically non-existent especially since Zenith was acquired by a Korean company last year. Once an industry is dominated by foreign owned companies, they have complete freedom to manufacture anywhere in the world that they choose. Why? Because they have the ownership, they have the control, and they have the sovereignty.
There is no way we are ever going to return the sovereignty of America to her people by buying foreign owned products regardless of where they are made. Unions, American citizens, and even the President can make all the speeches they want stressing corporate responsibility, but the Japanese, for example, owe no allegiance to the United States. Efforts to stress corporate responsibility can only be directed at American companies.
If we buy foreign owned, American made products before American owned, foreign made products just because they are currently being made here, we strengthen foreign companies instead of American companies and run the risk of losing our industries to foreign competitors, who may in turn relocate factories elsewhere, and there is nothing we can do about it. A foreign company has no obligation through loyalty to the United States to relocate factories form another country to this country. With an American company on the other hand, we have at least some leverage because they are based here. This is their home. It is in the land of opportunity, the United States of America, that they got the opportunity to start that business. If they are based here, they are more likely to stay here and keep some production in the US even if they do move some of it overseas.
If profits and earnings are up because we've been buying their products, economics allowing, they can afford to move factories back to the United States because they can afford to pay the higher wages.
We can get to the point where we can go to these American companies and say "Look, we have been buying your products because you are an American company. We want you to do well. You are one of us. But we would be so much more excited about buying your products if you would bring at least some of your production back to the United States." But we must be on record as buying American products first before we can do that. You cannot go to a foreign company with that line of reasoning because they owe no loyalty to the United States. And since trade agreements like NAFTA have been passed, the "Buy American" movement is getting stronger.
Organizations such as United We Stand America have already united together to hold our politicians accountable and to influence their decisions and their actions. In a similar manner, we must begin to hold our American companies accountable and to influence their decisions and their actions.
What would our country be like if we refused to buy a foreign company's product simply because they had acquired or built a factory here to try to sell
it to us. If we weren't buying their products, they wouldn't be here. They would be staying home and importing it to us. If we would only keep our tariff system, a system on which this country was founded, the government would collect revenue on those imports, and that would ease the tax burden on American workers and American businesses. It would be like our founding fathers intended it to be like. Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying "With the tariff system, the whole revenue is paid by the consumer of foreign goods. The man who contents himself to live upon the products of his own country pays nothing at all." As Pat Buchanan has pointed out, all four faces on Mount Rushmore were protectionists, not free traders. Theodore Roosevelt said "Thank God I am not a free trader." Are we to forsake the wisdom and insight of the great men of our time su ch as Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt for the obviously failed free trade theories of the likes of Bush and Clinton?
It is the US subsidiaries of foreign corporations that lobby for and represent foreign interest for establishing economic policy in the United States. This influences our economy, our way of life, our political process, and reduces American sovereignty.
Japan, for instance, is not just in the business of acquiring American companies in the United States. They are also in the American college acquiring business. Economist Pat Choate discusses six of these colleges in his 1990 book, "Agents of Influence". This desire of the Japanese to influence the education of American students was made apparent in a recent full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, where Toyota claims that they were "probably the most successful Hollywood (CA) opening of 1957", and that "in the last five years alone, we have invested more than $60 million in worthwhile community organizations and charitable programs, especially in the field of education."
Japanese corporations help finance both Republican and Democratic parties. Why? Because their plants are here too, and since they are here too, they feel they should have a say in establishing US economic policy. They have been here so long and their roots are so deep that Honda's and Toyota's are nearly considered American cars. They lobby our congress to favor positions that benefit their US subsidiaries. So, if we buy foreign owned, American made products over American owned, foreign made products, we are supplying foreign companies with the funds to lobby our politicians to favor their interests. We have made a big mistake in allowing so much foreign investment in this country.
Economist Pat Choate indicates that the number of new jobs created by foreign investment in this country is extremely low. Only 5 percent of the jobs foreign companies claim to have created were newly established foreign owned operations. The other 95 percent resulted in foreign acquisitions of existing US owned factories. And when you consider layoffs through consolidation and liquidation, not to mention lost profits and the taxes generated from those profits, the result of all this foreign investment may actually be a negative effect.
The more retail banking outlets, for example, that are foreign owned, the less say we will have in which businesses get financial backing, and which do not.
To more fully understand why we should buy American owned, foreign made products over foreign owned, American made products when we are faced with this type of a situation, you need look no further than the economies of the world. When you do, you won't have to look very far to see that the countries with the good, strong, solid economies are the ones that house the world's successful corporate headquarters within their borders. These countries provide a place for the profits to come back to and for the taxes to be paid on those profits. These countries include the United States, Japan, England and Germany. But if you look at countries such as Taiwan, Singapore and Mexico, these are the countries that have mostly subsidiaries of companies ultimately based elsewhere, and do not house many ultimate parent company headquarters within their borders to provide a place for the profits to go and for the taxes to be paid on those profits.
The more we strengthen the US subsidiaries of foreign based corporations instead of the American based companies, the more we will become like one of these poorer nations.
It is really amazing to me how strongly owners of foreign cars will argue defending their purchase of that car just because it was made in the United States. We must do more than buy just Made in USA. We should only do so when the company making that product here is an American based company, and not a US subsidiary of a foreign based company. These foreign based companies have done a good job convincing us that their economic foreign invasion is really no big deal. And why shouldn't they have? We have supplied them with more than enough funds through profits to convince us of exactly that.
Toyota Motor Corporation made over $94 billion last year. Your Toyota may have been made here in the United States, but after the American workers on the floor got paid for the assembly, where did the rest of the money go? Where did all that profit go? Most of it went back to Japan, to pay for engineering design on the next car they will sell us next year, among other things. Do you think foreign companies have an interest in supplying foreign parts for your car or truck? After all, they have the sovereignty. Where did the steel come from to build that transplant factory in the United States? Was it American steel or imported, foreign steel? Where did the machinery come from to aid in putting that car or truck together? Will American tires or foreign tires be installed on that car or truck? If you turn to the "tires" category, you will find there are a lot more foreign brands to choose from than American ones. Who owns the bank that provides the financing for purchasing
that car or truck? Do you see what is happening? We can buy a foreign automobile made in America, but what about all these other important factors? If we don't like the possibility that our new foreign automobile, although made in USA, may be assembled in a plant built with imported steel, with foreign machinery supplied and supported by foreign parts companies, fitted with foreign tires, and financed by a foreign owned bank, what recourse do we have to change any of that. We have none! Why? Because we have no sovereignty.
So you see, if we buy foreign owned, American made products over American owned foreign made products, we still stand to lose.
And then what happens after we buy our foreign car or truck. We have to put gas in it. And there is a wide variety of foreign petroleum companies to choose from. I gave my first speech concerning this book approximately ten miles from my home. On the way to the meeting, I had 15 opportunities to put gas in my car, but I could only stop at three of those 15 gas stations and be putting gas from an American petroleum company in my car. I had to travel over 5 miles just to find the first one.
However, there are areas where we still dominate, and these areas can be seen throughout this book. It is critical that we hold on to these remaining American dominated industries so we can stay on the offensive, instead of being on the defensive, such as in the TV industry, for instance, where we have lost basically everything.
I do not expect everyone to buy American in every category, that is why I have provided information on so many of them. I realize everyone has some degree of brand loyalty, but there are also areas where consumers are indifferent to any particular brand.
Don't feel like giving up your favorite brand of mustard? Fine. Does it really matter what brand of flour you buy? Could you really taste the difference in your favorite cake? Can you taste the difference of one sugar over the others?
How about the Supermarket from which you buy that brand? One brand of dishwashing liquid works the same purchased from one store to the next. Does one brand of bug spray really work better than the rest? Do you really care as long as it kills the bugs? Is it of great significance which brand of toothbrush you use? Are you getting the idea?
With the large number of categories of products and services provided in this book, there is a huge potential for everyone to buy American in one area or another.
Again, I want to stress that the goal of this book is to provide the consumer with the information on which companies are American owned, so we can combine this with the readily available American made information, and to provide opportunities, choices and alternatives so we can all "Buy American" in the purest sense of the term.
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