The Story of a Family That Boycotted China!

Protectionist? Hell Yes! We need to protect American jobs, the environment that China is TRASHING, and the poor rural Chinese that used to live healthy rural live but are now stricken with cancer, abused and exploited. All so we can have cheap plastic toys, tools that break after one use, and Kardashian's (Made in China) clothing!

I needed a toaster last year so I saved my money and bought a Star toaster made in the USA (yes it is more money, but worth it): http://www.b4usa.com/star-manufacturing-int-inc/

It's not a much about buying American as it is about not buying from Communist China! My Naot sandals and shoes are NOT made in the USA, they are made in Israel.... But NOT China.

I have not had anywhere near the problems the woman in the article had because I am a MINIMALIST!

Hipster

U.S. family tries living without China

By Cynthia Osterman

(Reuters) - Lamps, birthday candles, mouse traps and flip-flops. Such is
the stuff that binds the modern American family to the global economy, author Sara Bongiorni discovers during a year of boycotting anything made in China.
And hard it was.
For all of 2005, minor purchases required dogged detective work as Bongiorni scoured catalogues and read labels.
She repeatedly struck out trying to buy inexpensive shoes for her son, and
even the chic local boutique that sold fancy European labels had gone
out of business. So she shelled out $68 for Italian sneakers from a catalogue.In "A Year Without 'Made in China,'"
(Wiley, $24.95) Bongiorni tells how she and her family found that such
formerly simple acts as finding new shoes, buying a birthday toy and
fixing a drawer became ordeals without the Asian giant.

Bongiorni takes pains to say she does not have a protectionist agenda and,
despite the occasional worry about the loss of U.S. jobs to overseas
factories, she has nothing against China. Her goal was simply to make Americans aware of how deeply tied they are to the international trading system.
"I wanted our story to be a friendly, nonjudgmental look at the ways ordinary people are connected to the global economy," she said in an interview before the book appears in July.
As a business
journalist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bongiorni wrote about
international trade for a decade. "I used to see the Commerce Department
trade statistics, the billions of dollars, and think it had nothing to
do with me," she said.
The reality was far different.
As the year unfolded, "the boycott made me rethink the distance between
China and me. In pushing China out of our lives, I got an eye-popping
view of how far China had pushed in," she wrote.
About 15 percent of the $1.7 trillion in goods the United States imported in
2006 came from China, economist Joel Naroff writes in the foreword. Much
of that is the manufactured stuff that fills Wal-Mart and other
retailers -- the necessities and frivolities sought by lower- and
middle-income Americans.
Lower prices have been one benefit of Beijing's rise and make it very hard for consumers to forswear Chinese imports.


Broken appliances
gathered dust because the spare parts came from China. And, with the
Asian country having a near lock on the toy aisles, her 4-year-old son
grew tired of taking Danish-made Legos to birthday parties as gifts.
The family resorted to snapping mouse traps when the gentler catch and release kind came from, you guessed it, China.

Bongiorni got a lesson in the global economy after products advertised as Made in
USA turned out to have Chinese parts. She decided to keep a lamp with
just this problem after speaking to the manufacturer and learning how
China is "eating the lunch" of the few U.S lamp producers left.
Since
the boycott's end, Bongiorni has chosen a middle ground. Her family
seeks alternatives but accepts Chinese products when most practical. But
one habit from the boycott remains: It required her to think hard about
what she buys. "Shopping became meaningful," she said.