|  Buy American Monday, 06 February 2012 06:08 Because of wonderful people like my recent guest, *Mark Bloome, Founder of the non-profit “TAP America” http://tapamerica.org/
my job to convince Americans to buy American gets a bit easier. TAP America was just launched in May of this year and Mr. Bloom is dedicated to saving the American dream before we throw it away with both hands.
TAP stands for Tolerance, Americanism and Patriotism, words that some say may have seem to have lost their impact in the past generation. Albeit the meaning of tolerance hasn’t lost luster and the interpretation of patriotism varies from person to person, the word Americanism has been replaced by trendy words like “global world” and “cheap imports.” Mark Bloome and TAP America have been working hard to “tap” into the consciences of Americans and to shake them up to remind them of how lucky they really are. He wants more Americans to appreciate that fact by preserving America’s sovereignty and power by buying American for themselves and future generations. Recent polls show that the number of Americans who believe that their children will have a lower standard of living then theirs is increasing. That’s because, now more than ever, our government is being run by paid lobbyists. Those lobbyists are paid by non-patriotic profiteers who fuel the media for campaigns that preach penny wise and pound foolish rhetoric such as cheap imported goods let you live better. Folks, haven’t you already noticed the clues like higher deficits, unemployment and underemployment are on the up rise as elected officials pass more free instead of fair trade deals? It’s very obvious that free trade deals touting cheap imports do much more harm than good, especially when we import more than export. In fact, the more money we put into overseas coffers, the more we could blame ourselves should one of those nations decide to go against us either politically or physically. It’s the same as filling up a gas tank of a vehicle that eventually comes back and runs you over. You provided the fuel and have to take some blame along with the driver. Do we no longer care about who the driver is? Have we come that complacent about being a silent partner in a scheme that could bring us down? After all, with all of the complaining heard by both political parties about knowing where our tax dollars go, why are we less vigilant about what a foreign government does with the money we send them to manufacture our so-called affordable goods? Are you aware that in order to set up a plant in China the government has to own about 50% of it? Along with that you have to share industry secrets as well. That sounds more opportunistic than capitalistic to me, especially when there is no guarantee that communist China plans to be our friend for eternity. Half of American marriages fail after vowing “until death do us part” yet we give free reign with our dollars to foreign nations like communist China? Many of our largest trading partners are guilty of what is called “monetary or dollar mercantilism.” which is a term defined as “hoarding international reserves in order to improve competitiveness.” Here’s how they do it. The mercantilist government borrows their own money from themselves to drive up the price of the dollar in currency markets. This makes their currency and products lower than ours here. Because those dollars they purchase are not used to buy our goods and services, the demand for our products are kept artificially low. This is what adds to our trade deficit as they build up their industries at the expense of ours. To add insult to injury, they then loan back to us those very same dollars they purchased from us so we can still afford to buy their goods! It was said that Japan started this type of mercantilism after WWII and China copied it back in the 1990s. More nations have jumped on the bandwagon since then with us as their target. As long as politicians and economists stay in denial, the assault will continue. That’s why it’s imperative the American consumer take action and not put money into the hands of any nation that manipulates their currency and then loan us more dollars so we can buy their goods as they tariff ours. You see folks, we are not actually trading with foreign nations, we are trading goods and services with their governments! We practice capitalism here while state-backed industries abroad are eating our lunch. Talk about handing a feast to them on a silver platter! As they gorge, we starve and become weaker. I don’t need to remind you of the old saying “Only the strong survive” or the term “natural selection.” In essence, for every penny we send to a foreign nation for the sustenance we once produced for ourselves, the bigger the target gets on our back. Have you thought about how Rome and England were once the super powers that we became then lost that status? We became one because of our fought for independence from other nations and the proud attitude of “If you want something done right, do it yourself!” Without a healthy economy and taxpayers holding decent jobs, we will no longer be able to support the same military that defends us. Can you absolutely prove that you’re not helping put ammo in any foreign gun with the profits they make off of us by selling us their cheap goods? Leaders change and so does a nation’s ideology. Iraq was once an ally we supplied weapons to and Donald Rumsfeld even shook hands with Saddam Hussein in 1983. How naïve can we be? Believe me, I would love if we could hold hands with all other nations and sing Kumbayah, but human nature and the desire for world power and dominance dictates otherwise. Considering that we are the world’s melting pot, America happens to be a stellar example of that visual of foreigners holding hands to work together. Why forfeit it now? Mr. Bloome and I are not only on the same page and paragraph regarding the threat of other nations and buying American to keep our dollars here, we are on the same sentence! We both agree that we live in the best nation on the planet and the American consumers are the only ones left to do the job of preserving that for their descendants. As part of a plan to help Americans discern where their hard earned money is going, TAP America has started a merchant program. Tap’s merchant program is open to any retail establishment that sells at least 20% of American made goods and will be allowed the privilege of a TAP America decal displayed on their storefront. It comes at a good time, a recent Gallup Poll found that 72% of Americans are paying “heightened attention” to the country of origin of the products they buy. Another 65% are making an effort to specifically avoid products made in China. TAP America is serving to help those same people find the goods they desire. The motivating factors my vary, but the fact remains that we are building up foreign militaries with our own dollars instead of our own. So ask yourself if you are part of that high percentage that cares enough about your children’s and grandchildren’s future to keep dollars out of the hands of those who may at the drop of a hat turn against us. If you don’t believe me, just ask the writers of those free trade deals if the words “Until death do us part” are ever included in those long lasting contracts they pen. I’d bet some of them may even remember pledging those words themselves, that is, before they themselves got divorced from someone they once trusted. *Click Here for the 7/12/2011 show. Monday, 06 February 2012 06:08 by Barbara Toncheff Vodka means “water of life” and has always been associated with nations like Russia or Poland. However, thanks to my recent *Buy American Radio Show guest, Bert “Tito” Beveridge, we have one of the world’s finest Vodkas, Tito’s Handmade Vodka http://titosvodka.com/ made right here in the US. That’s right folks, American made Vodka! It’s called “Tito’s Handmade Vodka” named after the geo-physicist himself, and it’s even distilled in an old fashioned pot still right in Austin, Texas. Not only has Tito’s Handmade Vodka’s flavor beat 72 other high-priced Vodka’s at the World Spirit’s Competition, it’s also gluten free. Add to that the fact that it’s distilled 6 times makes it practically hangover free too! The Mockingbird Distillery which makes Tito’s Handmade Vodka is also the first and only legal distillery in Texas as well as one of the few in the U.S. Mr. Beveridge has an impressive resume as a geologist and petrol chemical engineer making him very knowledgeable about his decade old chosen profession. He is also a very humble man who has no problem telling you that he was thrown out of a few liquor stores when he first tried selling them on his namesake Vodka. He even started out by having to rely only on old photos of moonshine stills for a model to construct his own old fashioned pot still. After he was successful, he started giving away free bottles of his handmade Vodka to his friends. They loved it so much they suggested he try selling it to the general public. That was back in 2001 and now he is in all 50 states and has won many awards for his exceptionally smooth and pure Vodka. But that’s not all, Tito’s award winning Vodka is sold by taste factor alone, not by fancy bottles like his competitors, which keeps the price affordable to all incomes who want to enjoy high quality without the price. As Mr. Beveridge puts it “ I am supplying prime rib at a pot roast price.” He also is avoiding the temptation to produce those popular flavored Vodkas citing that it’s just as easy to make your own flavored Vodka in just a few days and includes “how to” videos on his website to show you. Talk about fresh and natural flavors! Again, he is keeping the cost factor out of the equation so Americans of all classes can afford to imbibe with one of the smoothest and purest Vodkas on the planet! Mr. Bert “Tito” Beveridge is the perfect example of the American dream success story. He started out by hand gluing labels on his product and now has international notoriety with his product including in the mother land of Vodkas, Russia. In a recent trip to Russia, one of his suppliers was asked at a recent opening of a brand new distillery there if he knew “this Tito guy!” Proving once more, Americans can do anything they set their minds to, and his awards also prove we can do it even better than the competition. That’s why it is important to support American owned businesses who stay within our borders so that we can continue the American legacy of being independent when providing goods for ourselves and Vodka is only a piece of the pie. There are many American made products available ranging from clothing to candles and it is up to us to make sure they survive and proliferate. This nation was started by the American people banding together to start a Revolution. We can start an economic revolution of our own by focusing on spending our hard earned dollars on any made in the USA products we can get our hands on. I have provided you with sources in past columns regarding other products that are in line with average import goods prices to help bring those industries back, now here’s one more to consider. It’s up to you and me to bring back the good old American liquor industry which has been mostly sold to foreign based owners. I don’t need to remind you how this nation was built on the backs of the pioneers and inventors who fit the old cliché “necessity is the mother of invention.” Well, in today’s poor economy and job crisis, it sure looks like a necessity to me to start up a new economic revolution in order to remain the beacon of the world. It’s no more complicated than the child’s game “King of the Hill.” Since our nation has been the King of the Hill for generations, other nations have been to trying to knock us off of the top of that hill by conquering our industries and buying them up one by one, rendering us less powerful and the alcohol business is no exception. Are you aware that the father of our country, George Washington, was once the largest whiskey distiller in the nation? His distillery at Mt. Vernon was a very successful economic component. At its peak production period in 1799, five stills and a boiler produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey for area locals. One just needs to do a little research in history to see how many of our immigrants brought their talents, including certain liquors and beers, to our shores and prospered. They built empires with quality alcohol that spread even throughout the Wild West in saloons. Unfortunately, some of America’s famous beers like Anhauser-Busch, Coors and Miller are now foreign owned, thus now sending the profits to those nation’s coffers instead of ours. I am sure that Thomas Jefferson, who brewed his own beer at Monticello, would be very disappointed in this nation’s zeal to become more dependent for something we can do ourselves. Did you know that a lot of the alcohol sold at the liquor stores is foreign owned? Lucky for us, Roger Simmermaker’s book; “How American Can Buy American” even includes an entire chapter on all alcohol products to tell us which brands are American or foreign owned to reference. Thus far, many of our politicians have proven to be sell-outs to small business. So now it’s up to us to prove that American consumers still care about this nation’s proud legacy of do it yourselfers and the ability to produce our own sustenance for our survival and security. If we don’t, we will be at the beckon call of all those nations that do! That’s why it’s important to support what’s left of our spirit industry and look for the unpretentious Tito’s Handmade Vodka bottle on the liquor store shelf and even suggest it to be carried at your favorite dining and drinking establishments. You will not only enjoy it’s unsurpassed flavor, you will actually help rebuild an industry that America’s founding fathers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, believed in themselves. Cheers America! *To hear the 6/28 show, you can use “On Demand” option. Monday, 06 February 2012 06:08 by Barbara Toncheff For any American interested in getting involved with stopping the insane trade deals that are responsible for shipping more jobs overseas, they need only to join The Coalition for a Prosperous America They are a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies. They are a nonprofit organization representing the interests of 2.7 million households through their agricultural, manufacturing and labor members. Two of the key members, Hal Martin and Brian Kasselen were recent guests on my Buy American *Radio Show and are working diligently to increase membership in Ohio, including holding a bi-partisan summit in Northeast Ohio September 19th. Some of the participants for that day include The Coalition for a Prosperous America’s CEO, Michael Stumo, Congressman Tim Ryan(D) and Congressmen Bill Johnson(R ). Also on the roster is Charlie Blum - Executive Director of the Fair Currency Coalition and a former guest on my radio show, economist Ian Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher’s excellent book, “Free Trade Doesn’t Work; What Should Replace It and Why” is shaking things up in the world of the pro-free traders. The pro-free traders still can’t seem to see the forest through the trees as they preach the exact opposite trade ideology that our founders had intended for this nation and her citizens. It’s as if they extract themselves from the lives of the everyday people who are struggling to make ends meet as more jobs are sent overseas because of unbridled free trade policies. But thanks to the efforts of The Coalition for a Prosperous America, the word is getting out to those elected officials who have failed their constituents and are being forced to listen to a bi-partisan coalition. I liken them to being the lobbyists for the middle class in Washington and around the nation. The only difference is they are fighting for all classes of people in this nation, not just the wealthiest ones who can actually afford high priced lobbyists. I believe, like them, it’s more than just a matter of America and the pursuit of happiness, aka prospering, it’s a matter of principle. That same matter of principle is also written in our own U.S. Constitution including Section 1 Article 8: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.” It’s apparent that those words have fallen on to the deaf ears of the profiteers who vilify protectionism and also grease the palms of the lobbyists pushing for more free trade deals to help fill the coffers of the wealthiest top 1%. They tell us we don’t need to make things anymore, just services. However, just this morning on the news, I saw a man interviewed during the riot in economically ravaged Greece who used the words ”We don’t make anything! We only have tourism!” Those riots resemble a revolution of sorts. The people of Greece are trying to make their government understand how bad the general public is hurting. Guess what? Back in 1768, the Tories shouted to our colonies "Buy from us, or go naked!" Outraged by a trade policy of advancing the interests of the Crown at the expense of the colony, the Founding Fathers became frustrated and rebelled. "The war of the American Revolution chiefly grew out of efforts of Great Britain to cripple and destroy our Colonial industries to the benefit of the British trader," wrote Sen. John Logan in his 1886 book The Great Conspiracy. "And... the independence conquered was an Industrial as well as Political Independence." Our July 4th Independence holiday will be celebrated this coming weekend and thanks to the pro-free trade crowd, we are less independent than ever considering how much we now import and our ballooning trade deficit! It’s a fact that trade has always been a part of history including Biblical times. I ask then, why are we the ONLY nation among our 153 trading partners that does NOT have a VAT (Value Added Tax)? Why is it OK for them to charge a VAT (a synonym for tariff) at their border but we are supposed to have their goods goose-grinded down our throats free of charge? The answer on the pro-free trade side is cheap imports help us live better. I answer you get what you pay for! The cheap import defense doesn’t hold water, when according to Robert Pollin, a professor of economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of “A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States” (Cornell, 2008) states: “As of 2007 — prior to the recession — the average nonsupervisory worker in the U.S. earned $17.42 an hour. This figure is 11 percent below the 1972 peak of $19.34 per hour (in 2007 dollars). And this is only half the story.” People, that was 4 years ago and I’m confident it’s even worse now considering everyday there seems to be more cheating going on with our overseas competitors in our newest industry, wind power. Just today I read an article titled “Ohio Wind Industry Suppliers Hurt by Overseas Companies” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s business section! Our green power industry is still a fledgling one and it’s already being attacked! Talking about attacks, being that Cleveland was once a proud steel town, I was just as horrified about 10 years ago when the same paper had a cartoon of Dennis Kucinich when he was in the midst of fighting to save our LTV steel mill. The cartoon depicted Kucinich trying to resuscitate a dying dinosaur with the words LTV written on the side of its body. About a week late, I felt compelled to send them a letter asking them “If the steel mill is such a dinosaur, then why did I just read in your business section only a small blurb about how China was buying our steel mill and it was being disassembled sent over there?” How naïve can we be? In its place sits a huge retail center including a Wal-Mart. Gee, I‘d like to have those retail workers compare pay stubs with their unionized steel worker predecessors. On top of that, we are now importing steel from China made with the very same steel mill that was not only accused of being a dinosaur but also of polluting our air. Considering the fact that there is no EPA in China, do you honestly think our air quality will be any better? In fact, I wrote in a previous column about how NASA scientists announced that a giant, smoggy atmospheric "brown cloud" that forms over South Asia and Indian Ocean has intercontinental reach and has effects around the world. The pro unbridled free trade supporters think by giving away more of the farm, like our steel making capacity, to the rest of the world will earn us respect and get us cheap prices in return. As far as I can see, it makes us look like fools and The Coalition for a Prosperous America is working very hard to keep us the super power that we are by preaching FAIR trade that works for all Americans and the general welfare cited in our own Constitution. Speaking of a trade policy that works for all Americans, I will close with two very profound quotes by the proud protectionist Senator Fritz Hollings from a speech that he gave back on March 31, 2004 that you should think about especially when celebrating this great nation’s 235th birthday: "But we will start a trade war," is the cry. Wake up! We have been in a trade war for more than 200 years.” “We are losing jobs faster than we can create them. Some time ago the late Akio Morita, founder of Sony Corp., was lecturing leaders of third-world countries, admonishing them to develop their manufacturing capacity to become nation states. Then, pointing at me in the audience, he stated, "That world power that loses its manufacturing capacity will cease to be a world power” *To hear the show go to 6/14 on the “on Demand” link Monday, 06 February 2012 06:08 by Barbara Toncheff
I could not resist having Mark Andol, owner of The Made in America Store http://www.saveourcountryfirst.com/ on my *radio show for a second time.
The first time was just before his one year anniversary. This time was just before the Memorial Day holiday. His website appropriately titled, “Save Our Country First” says it all.
Talk about the best way to give something back to our brave veterans by saluting them and their sacrifices by buying American made items and keeping our nation strong. After all, every dollar that stays in the US will contribute to more jobs and keep the profits from those purchases from being sent overseas to aid in building up a foreign military.
Mr. Andol also gives veterans a discount as well as constantly adding to his huge variety of goods that you can purchase inside his 6,000 square foot retail store just outside of Buffalo, New York. You can also simply order from the store online or even click on a link on his site to schedule a stop for a bus tour.
In fact, on that very day he was going to receive a bus tour filled with anxious patriotic shoppers right after our radio interview. Those shoppers will be able to feast on a huge variety of goods including everything from toys to quality clothing with catchy patriotic sayings. Being that my father is a WWII submarine vet and his older brother was a marine who served in Okinawa, I personally love the black shirts that feature the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima!
Speaking of patriotic shoppers, one would have to be living in a bubble to not see the trend moving back to buying American in a big way. Which leads me to remember a time in the 70’s when there was another deep recession and a lot of cars had a bumper sticker on them that read “Hungry? Out of Work? Eat Your Import!” It says a lot about today’s economy when that very same sticker is now on sale again on the internet.
Needless to say, since then, more than just the auto industry is being handed over on a silver platter to foreign owned nations. Yes, I used the word nations because most Asian nations have state backed industries along with universal healthcare that our US industries are stuck competing with. Many other of our industries have been forfeited and are now done by child and slave labor, and contribute greatly to worsening the Earth’s environment. That’s not good news to hear near a holiday that is supposed to honor all of the fallen veterans who gave their lives for our freedom and a better future for their descendants.
Along with that sacrifice, we have also been given the gift of freedom to choose where we want our goods made. But for decades now, the trend for “cheap” goods has been instilled in our conscious by crafty highly paid lobbyists who control our politicians like puppet masters when it comes to shipping our jobs and industries overseas.
At the same time, we not only need to make that effort to buy American from stores like Mr.Andols and a growing number of other buy American merchants popping up, we need to ask our elected officials what ever happened to all those so-called service jobs that were supposed to replace the outsourced ones?
As far as I’m concerned, all those “AFTA” trade deals have given us the “SHAFTA” and yet our politicians are begging for more of them as our economy languishes. They’re begging because of the aforementioned highly paid lobbyists who hound them.
I say we hound our officials with the opposite message, because after all, there are more of “us” than lobbyists and maybe then they will feel their jobs are at stake if they don’t listen to our message! Too bad many retired politicians become those highly paid lobbyists that work the system they know very well for their own benefit. It’s as if they suddenly don’t care about their prior constituents still seeking any kind of employment to replace the jobs that they gave away with zeal with their lousy trade deals.
Well folks, I say let’s give them an education and show them we mean business by choosing at least a few things from The Made In America Store and/or taking the time to key in to the search box “Made in USA” when shopping online.
Buying American is becoming so popular that even Diane Sawyer has jumped on the bandwagon with her “Made in America” series and now other media personalities are following in her footsteps.
It took Vermont’s Senator, Bernie Sanders, to recently shake things up at a Smithsonian Museum gift shop to get them to open a gift shop titled “The Price of Freedom” that will carry only made in USA items. How apropos to name it “The Price of Freedom Gift Shop” since it will be opening between our cherished Memorial Day and Independence Holidays.
If you feel you don’t think there is a price paid for our freedom then just ask a veteran. Better yet, just look at your or your neighbor’s shrinking paycheck to see how you are not only losing the freedom to choose to buy what you want because of budget limitations, you’re shortchanging the nation’s budget as well, including the military. Buying foreign imports for the price alone will effect you and your descendant’s personally as we go deeper into debt and borrow more from foreign nations who we will be beholden to. Just look at our gas prices to catch a glimpse of what it will be like if we lose all our industries. Think of the popular game “Monopoly” to understand what happens when others, especially foreign nations, gobble up all our profitable industries that helped us become the wealthy and independent nation that we are. Should we become the next “Mediterranean Avenue” compared to the rest of the globe?
The “cheap” party is already coming to an end because of the price of fuel, quality control and tainted goods that are forcing American manufacturers to rethink their strategy of moving their production overseas or down to Mexico.
So with the upcoming Independence Day holiday in mind, make sure you purchase made in USA whenever you can so you can feel the same pride that Mr.Andol says his customers say they feel as they shop in his store. I promise you will feel it too, especially when you look up into the sky on July 4th and see those glorious red, white and blue fireworks.
That is, if your local community hasn’t cut them out of their waning budget yet. If so, perhaps you should ask you local politicians how all of those promised service industry jobs are working out for their 2011 budget.
* The show aired May 24th - Go to the “On Demand” link on the home page to hear it. Monday, 06 February 2012 06:08 by Barbara Toncheff The mainstream media seems to always love to perpetuate the myths that buying American is not only hard , but supposedly more expensive. My recent *radio show guest, Lawson Nickol, owner of “The All American Clothing Company” , busts both of them. Located in Arcanum, Ohio, The All American Clothing Company ships its Made in USA clothing fast and efficiently to any destination. They have a wide variety of clothing including ladies tanks as low as $7.99, men’s tees $8.99 and jeans as low as $43.99. What’s unique about The All American Clothing Company’s jeans is that they are traceable right down to the U.S. farmer who grew the cotton for them! That’s right, every jean from them comes with a number that you can take to their website, key in, and trace the very “birth” of your jeans. The process is explained on their website in the Frequently Asked Questions link. You won’t be able to find that option with cheap Walmart jeans nor the majority of those so-called designer jeans that often time use overseas slave labor yet cost 10 times more than Mr. Nickol’s jeans. The most recent pair I purchased from The All American Clothing Company were traced to a farmer named Robert in Sumner County Kansas. This particular farmer happened to be a third generation farmer in Kansas since 1919. As someone who dabbles in genealogy, it makes me feel good knowing that little old me can actually help contribute to a family legacy as well as the U.S. economy. All that for the sum of $44.00 with free shipping when combined with items over $99.00. My package arrived in 2 days, which I believe that if I also paid for the shipping, would’ve saved me time and gas money had I ventured out to scour a number of stores only to find imported clothes of lesser quality and sometimes even higher in price. Sure, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I can at least try on the jeans in a big box retail store. The reason you need to is that each batch purchased for big box stores may vary in how the same size may fit because of the poor quality control of most overseas sweat shops. Not so with The All American Clothing Company’s items. In fact, Mr. Nickol’s size chart is very specific and worked perfectly for both my husband and myself. No worry, just throw your own jeans on your bed and measure them to compare with the very specific size chart on Mr. Nickol’s website and you’ll get your perfect fit. In fact, Mr. Nickol guarantees that if you aren't 100% satisfied, return any item within 90 days for a refund or exchange....NO QUESTIONS ASKED! Add to that their customer service is excellent and willing to please, why wouldn’t you want to purchase something from The All American Clothing Company? In fact, I recently read about two famous sisters who were in the press recently for having their designer clothing line made in the U.S.A. I thought, how wonderful! That is until I read further that a plain white tee shirt costs $250.00! You read it correctly, $250.00 for a plain white tee shirt! This is exactly what perpetuates the myth about American made clothing items costing more. It is these Hollywood sisters, and others like them, who get all the press, not necessarily great guys like Lawson Nickol. However Mr. Nickol was a regular on the Ed Shultz Show. According to Mr. Nickol, Ed Shultz was just a regular guy who he had several beers with, something that I have a hard time visualizing Hollywood mega stars doing with a regular person. After all, Mr. Nickol is that regular guy who truly deserves that pat on the back from the media, as well as your business, even if you could actually afford those ridiculously priced tees. In fact, I wish I could ask the sisters what they pay the people sewing their items to see how much of a profit they actually make just by labeling themselves as patriotic and sending the wrong message that buying American is costly. Mr. Nickol is no Hollywood star, he is a humble man who once was a sales manager for a U.S. jeans manufacture. One evening while shopping in a retail store he discovered his company’s label on a pair of jeans on a style he had not seen before. Then he discovered that they were now actually made in Mexico! He quickly confirmed the devastating fact that his company was now outsourcing to Mexico and promptly handed in his resignation within a few days. Mr. Nickol wanted to continue to support his customers that were loyal to the made in U.S.A. label by starting his own jean company. He started the business using savings, taking financial risks and working long hours. His All American Clothing Company continued to grow and flourish into a company that offers affordable U.S.A. made clothing for men and women, including outerwear and socks. All of the clothing offered on his site is also Made in USA Certified™. For those desiring the union label, some of the items he offers are union made as well. Needless to say, Mr. Nickol has thought of every one, especially people like myself who desire to buy a cute spaghetti strap top made in the U.S.A. that’s even less costly than my local Walmart offers. I can assure you that the quality is better and there is also more fabric in the top that The All American Clothing Company offers because the top is longer, making it much more wearer friendly. I also like the fact that any shipping I might happen to pay will help keep the postal workers employed, which I’m sure my friendly mailman Dave and my usual UPS delivery person appreciates. My hope is that wearing the made in U.S.A. label becomes even more “cool” than any pricey designer label and that The All American Clothing Company grows so large that it will rival Mr. Nickol’s former employer in sales. That not only would be a step in the right direction for our languishing manufacturing, it would set the precedent for many others to follow in Mr. Lawson’s brave footsteps. It’s up to the American consumers to support the sacrifices and efforts Mr. Nickol and his family and others like him have taken to keep made in U.S.A. products alive and well including the freedom to still have that choice. Now it’s more important than ever to buy American or else we will soon lose the same independence that our founder, George Washington risked his own life for and demanded himself. In fact, despite his reputation for being a “dandy,” he requested to have his Inaugural suit be made by an American tailor even though most fancy suits were imported from Britain. The father of our country chose to wear a humble suit of brown broadcloth with eagle-adorned buttons from Hartford, Connecticut when becoming the first president that this nation ever had. It was that kind of pride of ones own country that this great nation was built upon. To me, that’s what being, and also buying American is all about. *Go to 5/10/11 on the archive calendar to hear the show
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Buy American Barbara Toncheff is known as a “buy American” activist who has been featured in the national media.
Barbara grew up in a nation when most consumer items were made by proud American workers. Barbara’s cause to convince people to buy American began after she noticed that foreign imports took over the shelves and showrooms as the good paying jobs that were the genesis of middle class were shipped overseas to slave labor. She also remembers a time when cargo ships from around the world were docked at the Cleveland shoreline loading up hometown manufactured goods and employment was high. Bad trade deal after bad trade deal have eroded the American dream and the standard of living that Barbara’s European immigrant grandparents originally came to this great nation for. She was raised to buy American and support her country and its workers. Barbara’s 17 years as a CCT (Certified Cardiac Technician) in Cleveland’s major hospitals exposed her to patients from the indigent in the ER to foreign kings in private suites but she observed the middle class workers were the ones to worry most about unemployment and the cost of the tests she performed. Barbara feels buying American is a workers rights, national security and environmental issue as well. Some might think Barbara’s mission is a tall order in today’s force fed global mindset but her uncle, Jimmy Florian, was touted as David going up against Goliath when in 1950 he was Ford’s very first NASCAR win in a flathead Ford against racing legends in supposed faster vehicles. He beat the odds by “knowing the track” and her intent is for American workers to win by the same strategy. Barbara’s well known quote is:
“If free trade has been so good for our standard of living then why has this nation’s largest employer gone from high union wage benefits paying G.M. to low non union wage benefits skirting Walmart?”  | |
