Go(at)ing Places: Are we?

Thousands are losing their jobs, ice storms have killed 43 in Missouri, corporations & plants are closing their doors, the housing market is a crap shoot, the health care crisis is worse than ever, and the PB in our PB&J is poisonous.....Wow, what a month we have had & what a way to ring in the new year. Our nation is vulnerable.....and yet millions will forget it all for at least a few hours and watch The Steelers & Cardinals (...the who?) battle it out in the Super Bowl tommorow. A mental break from the reality of our nation's current situation. But somehow I seem to not be able to forget it, even for a few hours.

I guess I feel somewhat guilty for the status of our nation. We outsource our goods, our food, our jobs, our oil, ect. When is last time you bought something that was "Made in the USA", called a 1-800 number & spoke to an American, or ate a meal that was grown on our soil? We seem to have no problem pouring all our money into China & India's economy. And I'm guilty as the next. Is it convienience, laziness, or do we just not care? Is it more expensive to buy American products or pay Americans for their labor? Surely not in the BIG picture. We pay Americans/buy American products our money goes back into OUR economy. We pay for foreign labor/buy foriegn products our money is never seen agian. ......Is it greed? Is the corporate world only concerned with their big budget salaries?

I owned a Dell computer in college. The computer got a virus (as they all do eventually) and I was left with nothing but a black screen and a 1-800 number for Dell support. I called the number & I remember the girl answering my call with a thick accent saying "Good Morning and thanks for calling Dell Support"....to which I reply "Morning? Its nine pm! Where are you answering this call from?". She was in New Dehli, India. I was shocked that I was talking to someone in India about a problem I was having in Tennessee. Dell is a company born in the heart of Texas (Round Rock, I think) - I'm sure its cheaper to outsource their Support personel to India but why not spend a little more to employ our citizens & feed the money back into economy. I'm not for sure, but I'm guessing Dell's only real market is in America (since China & Japan dominates the techno world).

Do you remember McDonald's "All-American Meal"? My McD's memories as a kids were limited to the All American meal because that is all my brother & I were allowed to order. (Our only choice was cheese or no cheese.) When I went off to college I soon understood why my mom only allowed us to order the AAM - it was the cheapest thing on the menu. I tried to order the AAM my first year of college, only to be told by the cashier "We dont carry that anymore." I ordered my meal seperately (burger + fry +drink), but was still curious as to why the AAM was no more. Well I found my answer. McDonald's stopped buying American beef and began serving beef from New Zealand (because it was cheaper). So selling the All-American Meal would have been a fraud. With the beef & cattle industry suffering as it is in America, I wonder what impact it would have if the millions of burgers sold by Mickey D's were benefiting American farmers & ranchers instead of New Zealand.

Am I saying we should buy only American products? No, this would be near impossible. But looking at the big picture it makes sense that if heavy outsourcing would stop our economy would be fueled and there would be more jobs to be had.

So are we going places? Well look over the contents of the $819 billion dollar stimulus package that was just past by the House.......It makes me think maybe we aren't.