What is the most significant reason why American working people buy goods that are produced in other countries

Question

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Answer 1

They tend to be cheaper. Every day fewer and fewer products are American made, due to cheap labor.

Answer 2

Unfortunately it is the price. Many look at the price and not care where it is from. This hurts because it is hard for American companies to compete with the low wages and little environmental regulations abroad. So as Americans buy the cheap goods, they lose more jobs to overseas. It is an endless cycle that brings the economy down. It creates lower wages and fewer jobs in America, forcing more to buy the cheaper goods. If we continue to buy foreign goods, where will our children work?

Answer 3

Exchange rates set by central bankers have destroyed fair competition in commerce, causing a chain of events which lead to,,, better products at lower prices on foreign products sold in the usa.

If you travel to other developing countries and exchange American dollars for local currency and then compare cost of living expenses for workers in these other countries to cost of living expenses in the U.S. you will see a significant gap, most of the time.

Example:
In many developing countries a $500 U.S. per month income could put you into the top wage earning bracket, in that country.

Where-as a $500 per month income in the U.S. no longer is enough to pay the rent, in most U.S. areas.

Answer 4

In order for Beestings' analysis to be correct, the bankers would have had to conspire to keep the dollar high in relation to other countries. But I don't think you could characterize the dollar as getting stronger since then. Certainly it has been falling recently.

If I guessed, I would guess the dollar was strong post war, perhaps falling with the inflation in the seventies, rising up in the eighties, rising in the expansion of the 90's, then falling since then. In other words, the dollar is tied more toward business cycles than overall conspiracies to keep the dollar forever rising. But that is just a guess.

Answer 5

In the 1970's tariffs and import quotas forced U.S. consumers to accept U.S. cars. The result was higher prices for poor quality cars. Instead of helping U.S. auto manufacturers it has almost destroyed them. They have never recovered.

When you buy the best value for your dollar you promote quality and efficiency. When you spend your money any other way you get what you pay for. If you want that union label you can pay for that, and get almost nothing else.

“the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade..with reason…not force as their final arbiter … it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability… and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward.”

Answer 6

Because little else is available. I actively look for American made products and seldom find them. Even higher end products are seldom made in the US. But I do what I can, like driving an American made car.

Answer 7

The cost. Products made in other countries are actually cheaper than American made products. I do try to buy American made whenever I can, like my car.

Answer 8

Status and cheaper.
Many of the items that are purchased are not nessesary for our everyday lives. We purchase the items for status more than anything else.
stupid trinkets
anything in the checkout line at the market (made in (made inTiawan)
dollar store crap in the mall (made in India)
plastic jewlrey (made in China)
my 5th pair of shoes ( made in China)
toys my 33 yr old friends buy (made in Yugoslavia)
anything starwars purchased for someone older than 10 or 11(made in Laos)
the third or fourth tv in your house (made in Mexico)
ect. etc. etc.

I hope this applies to some of you and you realise how dilly our spending habbits are.

Answer 9

Usually, the immediate availability. The old supply-and-demand market hype. Next, would definitely be the price.... and oh yeah: Location, Location, Location.... ;}

Answer 10

They are almost always cheaper, and lots of American working people don't get paid much.