Don't Use Any Foreign Products.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

For all those keen on American Isolationism.

Spend an entire weekend using no products from another country. This means no food, clothing, cars, computer, etc that comes from another country. (Don't have to really)

Still, you can look at all your stuff and get the general idea of what it would be like if all we had was Made in USA products. For a Political science class a guy told me that he actually went through with this project. He couldn't use anything.

He had to sleep on the floor. He couldn't drive his car. Couldn't brush his teeth with a toothbrush. The only clothes he could wear were a sleeveless white shirt, shorts, and cleats. He spent most of his free time drinking in the middle of the floor doing nothing but getting drunk.

Do any of you think you can go two days, hell even a day, without using any foreign products?

[Chris]

I'd rather not use a domestic car anymore, except for some exceptions...

[SlickWilly440]

Do any of you think you can go two days, hell even a day, without using any foreign products?

Ahh...................................NO!

It's not our fault, blame the big machines aka international manufacturing corporations.

[blank slate]

It's all part of globalization. It's because of this that American isolationism is damn near impossible. All of the world's economies are intertwined.

[Mechs]

I couldn't do it. My computer is Japanese, the gas my car runs on is from the middle east. The only thing I could do is eat and sleep. As much as I like to do those two things, life would be pretty boring if it was the only thing I could do.

[MNJetter]

If the whole of America was isolationist, we could set ourselves up to be more self-sufficient. Right now we're not, and that's one of the big things that isolationists go on about. They're not claiming that we can survive on our own right now - they're worried because we can't, and think we should.

[Shuft]

What would I do all day? How about your mom.

Seriously though. Isolationists are silly.

I don't remember who it was. Some famous economist. He said that trade deficit isn't anything to really worry about. If we have a complete deficit in trade (we import everything and export nothing), then we just traded little scraps of paper and promises for a lot of wealth. We win.

[Plekto]

The guy's an idiot, of course.

The actual test should be to not use third world produced products. See, if we are trading with countries what have a similar level of economic and social development, we don't suffer from a disparity that causes us to lose money or outsource jobs. Equal trade keeps everyone's standard of living high. Inequal trading brings the two into parity if left alone long enough.

Since we are #1 currently, that means inequal trade by definition is going to bring the U.S. down from that #1 spot. And, no, a trade imbalance in terms of money isn't a factor at all, which is where almost everyone gets it wrong. The probelm is inequal standards of living and infrastructure. ie - paying pople in China 20 cents an hour even after converting it. Compare that to wages in Japan, which are nearly equal to the U.S.(10 or 20% isn't even a blip, but 500% is a problem)

Trading with Europe or Japan or Canada is fine. Trading with China or Mexico, or should I say, moving entire industries there - that's bad.

You can easily live in any case without. He just needs to use the internet and a few other resources to prepre a few months ahead of time. I know many people who use little or no third world products, though it takes a bit of work, that's true.

Computer - Maybe(tricky, though hthere are a few U.S. and Japan made models). In a pinch, you could use an older P3 Era machine and run Windows 2000 to get online perfectly well(my ex does this in fact). PDA or Cellphone, yes. Nokia makes many of them and Sony and others, well, there you go.

Stereos - trickier, but not impossible with a little more money.

TV. This is a hard one, but there are a couple of Japan or European brands still out there, and one made in the U.S. IIRC. No, you won't find these at any retail store.

Household consumables such as lightbulbs and so on - also not impossible. For instance, Westinghouse still makes U.S. made lightbulbs. You can also get U.S. made batteries and such, including rechargables. No, Home Depot doesn't carry them.

Cookware and so on is also a snap - cast iron and pyrex is all you need.

That leaves clothing(car is also simple - get an old classic U.S. car or an older Mercedes diesel and make your own biodiesel fuel.(local fast food chain's used oil is a good place to start)

Back to clothing - there are tons of options if you shop online or gosh - learn to make your own clothing. Really a DUH thing if you are prepared.

That's most of what we use. Computers and electronics are the hardest part. But you certanly don't have to go cold turkey tommorrow and sit in your underwear like this fool.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

Well, it was a weekend project for a class and the professor didn't expect anyone to actually be able to go through with it.

Damn it all if he did.

[akitaka]

moral of the story: south-east Asia wins :p

You'd have to be either relatively wealthy or hardcore to do this sort of thing in Arizona. If there's isn't a "china" on the bottom of the container, surely "mexico" will take it's place.

[Silverhawk]

What if the computer was assembled in US, but its components were made in china/taiwan/malaysia/etc? Would that disqualify the product?

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

Yup.

[Citizen]

What if it was assembled in the USA from parts made in the USA, but the person assembling it was a 6-year-old illegal immigrant working for twenty hours a day in a hot, dimly-lit shed for $5 a week?

[Roxie]

It'd be possible...for a few days (only)...you'd just have to buy ALOT of new shit OR go camping.

[Sublime]

For all those keen on American Isolationism.

Spend an entire weekend using no products from another country. This means no food, clothing, cars, computer, etc that comes from another country. (Don't have to really)

Still, you can look at all your stuff and get the general idea of what it would be like if all we had was Made in USA products. For a Political science class a guy told me that he actually went through with this project. He couldn't use anything.

He had to sleep on the floor. He couldn't drive his car. Couldn't brush his teeth with a toothbrush. The only clothes he could wear were a sleeveless white shirt, shorts, and cleats. He spent most of his free time drinking in the middle of the floor doing nothing but getting drunk.

Do any of you think you can go two days, hell even a day, without using any foreign products?

HINT: You can still read magazines or a book that's been written and printed in your home country. You can eat bread perhaps and some other basic types of food milk cornflakes etc...

Globalization ain't really all that bad. 2000 years ago Galen the finest Roman doctor and pharmacist used to import different ingredients for his medicines from abroad. Like white clay for pills from example. In the finest days of the Empire there were literary thousands of different exotic treatments. Of course poor people had to use the simpler mixtures. The important part was those mixtures were neither less effective nor had any stronger side effects. The so called exotic medicines were nothing else but exotic.

My point is in the hight of political and economic power a country can and will afford to import better products or even products of equal quality from abroad just because it's profitable for both parties. From what I've learned here producing everything at home seems to be an economical suicide.

[Roxie]

You could move into a whole foods!

[MEGA SATAN 3000]

I don't remember who it was. Some famous economist. He said that trade deficit isn't anything to really worry about. If we have a complete deficit in trade (we import everything and export nothing), then we just traded little scraps of paper and promises for a lot of wealth. We win.

Walter Williams?

[Shuft]

Walter Williams?
I'm pretty sure I heard it from my friend David, a conservative economic doctoral student at George Mason University (http://lawlegislationandlunacy.blogspot.com/ is his blog). I don't know who he was quoting.

[Jetsetlemming]

I doubt there is very much food I eat that ISN'T grown and produced in America. My computer was almost assuredly manufactured in China, but that's really a non-issue, because we don't DEPEND on China for computers, we just have Chinese manufacturing out of convenience, and in an Isolationist America moving technology manufacturing home would be pretty easy, if more expensive than it used to be. My house and everything in it is pretty much ancient and I think the only thing in here possibly not American made would be the stove or washing machine, as they're the only really new appliances here (outside my computer). I have no clue where they make stoves and washing machines, though.
Anyway, it's a pretty pointless exercise. CURRENTLY we rely on foreign made products out of convenience and low cost. If we NEEDED or WANTED to, we could fairly easy bring production back to domestic soil.

[Plekto]

Too bad that the world has returned to the way it was in the late 1800s. The people who run those industries won't go back even IF the people want them to, plain and simple, as they know they have a captive audience.

For instance, take gas prices. They could charge $10 a gallon and guess what... 90% of Americans would pay because they have no alternative. The system of economic balances breaks down when one side has all the power and the consumer has no viable options other than what's being offered.(essentially a monopoly based upon outsourcing).

"Made in the U.S.A." is very hard to find in the last decade.

[ミュー]

I am very picky about buying Japanese products. It's expensive, but you really do notice the difference in quality and post-purchase service. I got a Westinghouse LCD monitor at Best Buy in the US, it malfunctioned, and getting a replacement was damn near impossible thanks to a bunch of shifty company policies and Best Buy sucking at life. I got a Sharp washer/dryer after I moved into my new apartment, and something went wrong with it. I called and a technician came the next day to fix the problem. I could only find one mini-blender in Yodobashi that wasn't Chinese made, and the quality gap was obvious. Why pay less for inferior goods?

[Roxie]

ooh! you could live Amish style!!

[Trump]

Why pay less for inferior goods?

That is an answer in itself. You pay less and get less. People just don't realize how annoying things like that can be. For me, yes it is worth it to pay for quality. Many people though do not put any thought into it. It makes me sad.

[Citizen]

I've put thought into. That thought being that I've had cheap shit break, I've had expensive shit break, I've had cheap shit last forever, and I've had expensive shit last forever. So I tend to go middle-of-the-road. Once you get past a certain point you're no longer paying for the quality, you're just paying for the brand name. Cheaper ≠ Inferior, at least not all of the time.

Then again, American Made ≠ Inferior, as well, but I doubt there's much point in making that argument here. The only real American trend is putting moronic add-ons into things, like fridges with TVs in them. Then again, considering some of the Japanese and European products I've seen, maybe it's not so much an American trend as it is a first world trend.

[Mastiker]

ooh! you could live Amish style!!

http://www.filesale.ru/images/video_clip/2631.jpg

...:gloomy:

Hmm... I wonder if I could even do that... well, for one, I don't think I'd be able to use the Train until I figured out that it was American made - which I doubt. That's not too big a deal, since I walk everywhere anyways... given enough material, I could buy my own... I drink plenty of milk and water, and I eat plenty of foods grown in the US... my text books are fine... are MacBook's U.S. made? If not, I'd have to give up that...

Oh well. Doesn't seem like that big of a jump.

[SlickWilly440]

Hmm... I wonder if I could even do that... well, for one, I don't think I'd be able to use the Train until I figured out that it was American made - which I doubt. That's not too big a deal, since I walk everywhere anyways...

The material that is in that floor/road/sidewalk/carpet might not be American Made, and we are using it just by walking on it.


THERE IS NOT ESCAPE!

[Mastiker]

The material that is in that floor/road/sidewalk/carpet might not be American Made, and we are using it just by walking on it.


THERE IS NOT ESCAPE!

Oh my.

This is a problem.

Oh well.