“Buy American” Sounds Good but Doesn’t Work
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It sounds great… the U.S. government is going to try and keep the money in this country by inserting language into the massive spending bill that’s coming by saying “Buy American” must come first… but what will our trading partners think of this? Exports are one of the few bright spots in the economy right now… exports that keep Americans employed and shareholders happy. But if the government is forced to only buy from American companies when possible then not only will inefficient businesses stay that way but foreign companies that currently sell their products and services here will go to their governments and ask that similar provisions be written for them… the result being protectionism, further slowing of global trade and, eventually, job losses here in the U.S. because companies can’t sell themselves overseas.
A lot of this “Buy American” talk comes from a familiar source – Unions. Here’s what Investor’s Business Daily has to say:
According to the Heritage Foundation,including Davis-Bacon provisions will drive up construction costs on the $188 billion worth of construction projects in H.R. 1 by some $17 billion.
These provisions will make the U.S. less competitive, fail to stimulate the economy and likely trigger a trade war. If this recession is prolonged and deepens into something worse, be sure to look for the union label.
EU issues warning over Buy America plan
If there’s one thing we should know but don’t ever seem to remember it’s that we pay attention to what we see but nobody seems to notice what we don’t see… that is a loss of jobs later.
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5:01 PM
With all the union bashing by companies you would think the majority of workers in this country are union people. What’s closer to the truth is that companies are trying to figure out more ways to max out their profits. Useless government regulations are the major problem. Companies don’t pay taxes people, they simply collect them for the government and send them to Uncle Sugar or the local taxing authority and we in the end, pay them.