Tammy Bruce: How to Buy American

How to Buy American

With the toy recall now expanded to over 9 million toys, as we've just discussed on the show, here are a variety of links to help you by American. Over 80 percent of the toys here in America are made in China. I'll be posting separately on how and why that has happened, but for right now, here are the links I promised:

www.americanplastictoys.com (also a HT to Ray in Dearborn-istan. American Plastic Toys is based in Michigan).

www.shopforamerica.com

www.howtobuyamerican.com

www.usmadetoys.com

This is just a start. If any of you readers have any other ideas, links, suggestions, for completely American-made products please post them in comments. It will help all of us.

Posted by Tammy · August 15, 2007 09:58 AM · Permalink
Children | Internationalism | Money/Capitalism | Shopping | democracy

Comments

When you get in bed with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

It's not enough that China sends us wheat gluten laden with insecticides to kill our beloved pets - now they are sending us lead-encrusted toys full of small parts to poison and and choke our children to death.

I guess when you willingly do business with a country that has no problem killing hundreds of young citizens yearning for more freedom, or routinely challenges Cuba for thw world lead in political prisoners, you have to expect to receive quality product in return.

Posted by: PeteRFNY at August 15, 2007 10:38 AM

Tammy,
It is too easy to say it is all the fault of the Chinese. Yes, they did it but the company that imports without inspection is just as much to blame. It is not just the Chinese, it is a whole world of corner-cutters. We have laws because Americans used to do this too. I'll bet some still try now and again.

The trouble is we can drag Imus and CBS executives out into the streets for stupid comments but we don't chase these guys down with torches for doing something far worse - endangering lives!

I would like to know why more of the big mouth bloggers and talking heads are not calling out Eckert to identify who was responsible for the "design flaw" and who was responsible for not testing the paint? Then we can blast their names and all jaw about it for weeks.

Posted by: drrogera at August 15, 2007 11:58 AM

I can't save the world single-handedly, but as a matter of personal conscience, I'll give my business to domestic companies when I have a choice. At a time of a horrendous trade deficit, I see this as more of a pro-American, rather than an anti-Chinese, stance. Of course, now that global commerce is hugely tangled and interconnected, the question of who you're supporting in your purchase is often hard or impossible to evaluate.

One example: I buy New Balance athletic shoes. Some of their high-end shoes are actually of domestic manufacture, and I've always been happy with them. If you check out their "mission" page and click to the "Commitment to US Manufacturing" section, you'll see an intelligent statement to the effect that they do what they can to maintain a strong manufacturing presence here. That means a lot more to me than an expensive endorsement of some stupid sports idol.

Posted by: Talkin Horse at August 15, 2007 02:00 PM

Now more than ever, we should be supporting Made In America products. Great show today Tammy!! I have been made aware of this site that sells only American Made Products. I hope it helps. They sell everything from clothes to toys..
www.zebulonusa.com

It is not easy my friends. But I think it is about time we put up or shut up. I looked around my house today and could not believe that dare I say over 65% of the items in it, including clothes, (bawl) are made in other countries..

Posted by: Trinity at August 15, 2007 02:27 PM

American Apparel - http://americanapparel.com

Posted by: Senrab at August 15, 2007 03:10 PM

I personally don't have a website to give, but I will definitely recommend these sites to anyone I can.

I am getting nauseous with anything Chinese and along with their goods, just their irresponsibility of killing off their only freshwater bottle nose dolphin recently to extinction that survived the test of time, proves how reckless they are.

Posted by: dmg333 at August 16, 2007 12:50 PM

Something that is very disturbing is what you don't see as "not made in America". Open up any Dell Computer (or any computer made by any American Manufacturer) and try to locate any internal component made in the USA. Good luck. If it's not made in China, look for Malaysia or India etc.
As an aside, I looked at your bio and was pleasantly surprised at your interest in sci-fi. Might I recommend an older book by Ursula LeGuin (sp) entitled the "Left Hand of Darkness"

Posted by: Jim55 at August 18, 2007 06:27 AM

Some current frustration for me is the fact that many companies merely list products as "Imported", but don't state where the item is specifically imported from. Perhaps new legislation designed to specify what country products come from? I've made the decision to buy American for the most part, but some companies, such as Gap, Sears, etc., are my favorites.
Additionally, just after the recalls from Mattel I was listening to some chilling information on NPR about lead and lead poisoning. Because we had some of the affected toys, I decided to call my pediatrician to ask what we should do. I was told to call poison control, which then passed me on to the Lead Poison Hotline. With such large-scale recalls, wouldn't one think that pediatrician offices would be well-versed in which steps to take? Why is it that there are so many open ends?

Posted by: Gail at August 20, 2007 09:23 AM

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