Buying American is sometimes as easy as finding an American-flag-on-a-tag. The rectangular scrap of cloth, conspicuously terse MADE IN AMERICA, or Old Glory amulet adhered to a shoelace anoints the product and signifies a patriotic purchase. The single act of patriotism won’t staunch the exodus of good American jobs, but compounded over a lifetime and adopted by other patriots over their lifetimes…brace yourself for a tidal wave of American economic superiority. Answering how the greatest economic juggernaut in human history is to be revitalized by everyones’ buying American isn’t particularly interesting. But, rest assured, your conscientious purchase of American wares will return to the US, like a hen gathers her chicks under her wing - metaphor! - those high-wage union jobs that have been AWOL since the Chinese, Japanese, and who-knows-who-else started selling us their affordable goods.
Sometimes it’s easy. Red Wing and Danner manufacture their boots in the USA out of materials sourced in the USA, by tanners and shoe-makers here, in the USA. But Red Wing manufactures lines qualified by globalist-sounding caveats, such as “Made in USA with Imported Materials” as well as “Assembled in the USA with Imported Components”. Keen, no stranger to hawking non-American products, was compelled - whether by market or morals, is unclear - to offer boots that display a small but conspicuous patch of Old Glory on the tongue. Their version of Old Glory is a black-on-gold rendering of the real stars and stripes, one that captures the motto, “assembled in PDX from the finest materials from around the world”. The most American-sounding jean, Wrangler, offers a special database of US-made clothing, each piece embroidered with a patch indicating as such, and, if purchased on-line, buyer can view pictures of these items alongside pictures of dependable, hardy farmers from the heartland.
“despite his conviction that a Dodge/Ford/Chevy is as ‘Merican as baseball and NASCAR, some of these car manufactures are quite content to manufacture their cars in Mexico - en serio! ”
Other times…as when buying large items such as cars, there’s something a Dodge pickup-driving, scold-his-wife-for-not-buying-him-American-work-pants-for-Christmas, remind-everyone-at-work-to-buy-American may find unsettling: support of the US economy may mean abandoning a US brand in favor of something…more global. But we can’t blame our only slightly caricatured brother for failing to realize that, despite his conviction that a Dodge/Ford/Chevy is as ‘Merican as NASCAR, some of these car manufactures are quite content to manufacture their cars in Mexico - en serio! Nor can we expect him to appreciate that some foreign auto companies may contribute more to the US economy - by manufacturing their cars in America, source their parts from America, and employ more Americans - than some of the America’s most ‘Merican companies.
The following question may help clarify the enterprise of buying American. Which better supports the American economy: purchasing from an American company, say Ford or Buick, that builds its (some of its) cars in Mexico or Canada; or, purchasing a car from a Japanese company, say Honda or Toyota, that builds its cars in America? As we will see, cars are increasingly less subject to being made either in the US or outside the US. The complexity inherent to buying an American car is what we’d expect from buying almost any product in a global economy. Furthermore, “made in American”, particularly with regard to cars, is a matter of degree. So, the question facing conscientious car buyers isn’t whether a car is American-made, but, to what extent a car American made. (Another question whose answer would add clarity is, to what extent does a company’s country of origin impact the US economy. At least in the circles I travel in there’s a half-baked notion that the profits earned by a foreign company - even when it has plants, workers and stores in the US - that those profits go back to the mother country and somehow don’t benefit the US economy).
Thankfully, since 2006, Cars.com has published its American-Made Index, inserting much needed objectivity into a discussion about as objective as a political discussion at a union break table. The index uses data from five sources to determine to what extent a vehicle is made in American: where a car is assembled; a car’s domestic-parts content; where a car’s engine and transmission come from; and, how many U.S. factory workers its parent automaker directly employs. The results reveal that the Honda Odyssey, Ridgeline and Passport score 2, 3, and 4, respectively, and the Acura MDX and RDX score 6 and 10. The Honda Accord, Toyota Avalon and Toyota Tundra are also in the top-15. In other words, some Toyotas and Hondas do more for the American economy than some Fords, Dogdes and Chevys. Consider too that the Ford Fusion and Fiesta are made in Mexico, the Jeep Renegade is made in Italy, and the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LD and GMC Sierra 1500 Limited, are made in Canada - information likely to cause a kerfuffle, eh?
While some products lend themselves to the Made in America/not Made in America distinction, large, expensive and complex items like cars, clearly do not. This is not to suggest that consciously supporting the US economy by sussing out what vehicles are American-made and then buying one. Buying American is a worthy enterprise - as is buying local, but I digress - because doing so clearly bolsters US jobs. There’s also something nostalgic about buying American, about seeing cobblers at Danner do their cobbling and those rugged farmers supplying us with rugged, snug-fitting jeans.
What we call American runs much deeper than an hood ornament. Those who want to buy American and a Toyota Tundra or Honda Odyssey can do so, it seems, in good conscious, and can even mount a solid defense for doing so. The Cars.com index should serve as a cautionary tale for those cheeky enough to mock Toyota owners for insufficient ‘Mericanness. Afterall, depending on the model and year - it could be more American than a Chevy.