It is hard to imagine an economy that is better off because we are paying more taxes instead of soley focusing on increasing the GNP. We pay too many taxes already and our government is already too big. If government was smaller and more dollars were kept by the individual, many argue that the economy would improve along with the GNP...myself, I am all for the fairtax idea...

http://www.fairtax.org/


>>>>Yes the consumer has a very simple and powerful say. They can simply choose not to buy stuff made outside their country of choice. Wal-Mart is driven by the profit motive, sure, but ...
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>>>If at some point in the future you can walk into a Safeway, Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, K-Mart, Rothe's ... and see an aisle clearly marked "Support Communism, Support Oppresion - made in China' and decked out with red flags, and another aisle decked out in red white and blue with large signs saying 'Support America, Support Freedom, Support Democracy'. Then yes consumer choice becomes a possibility.
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>>>On the other hand, when you are obliged to completely dismantle something, or wade through three levels of packaging to find the micro-dot that states 'Made in China'. Then no, consumers are just sheep to be herded.
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>>Hi Houston. Not quite but nice idea :)
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>>First of all there are large and obvious products like cars or computer parts or clothing that we all know where it is manufactured.
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>Really? And what about Toyota's? Are these made in Japan, or here in the U.S., I'm guessing a mix of both. How about Ford? How many parts go into a Ford that are made overseas? But hey, I hear your argument – if an item is big or obvious, then that makes it easy to decide where it was made!!! You appear to have swallowed whole, the myth of consumer culture; that we have a choice! The only real choice is take it or leave it. The fact that there are a dozen sizes, flavors, colors, etc. is largely irrelevant - take for example surfactants, these are all basically the same, it is only the packaging that differs. To quote a Stanford piece: "production choices of society are largely driven by the dynamics of Forced economic growth. Fabrication of demand is part of the production process, through massive marketing and feedback of the Economic ideology itself."
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>>Secondly, ignorance is not a defence (I think you mean defense). If its really important to someone to only buy products made in their country of choice then its important enough to spend the time to investigate it.
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>Personally, I prefer to buy products created in a sustainable manner - anything that has to be 'shipped' half way around the globe is going to have a tough time meeting the grade. I also believe that the big retailers 'know' that we are all operating under increasingly tight time constraints - some of us, barely have the time to do comparative price shopping, never mind investigating each and every products heritage.
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>>Thirdly, your post doesnt address the fundamental issues raised in the outsourcing / offshore production debate. Consumers want high quality at low price and investors in companies like Wal-Mart want returns on their investments.
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>I was under the impression this thread was meant to be about an extremely humorous hypothetical Seinfeld skit. What ever, lets take the argument you put forward else where in this thread, that employing someone overseas can lead to more profits. Which in turn can lead to more taxes paid ... If you sell a product for $100 and it cost's you $40 if it's made by someone in the U.S. then that someone is paying U.S. taxes and (hopefully) also spending the remainder in the U.S. (hint: go to Google and search on "Economic Multiplier Effect"). If the same product can be made in India for $4 then that is $4 that will likely not see the U.S. again for a while, being spent I imagine in India! When it eventually returns to the U.S. it will be worth less (money typically reduces in value with time). The rest of your specious argument collapses in similar fashion.
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>>Fourth, this is not about communism vs. democracy. Its economics. We make stuff, they make stuff, we buy stuff, they buy stuff, we all make and buy stuff together <g>!
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>You’re correct, this is not about politics, it's about economics - alas I find it as hard to separate these two, as the Bush Administration does trying to keep Church and State separated.