Debbie,
I think letting them know anyway possible is a great idea. My plan is to encourage my subscribers to do what you suggest using email and their mouths when they go into these stores. When I go to a store, I tell them flat out I am looking for a particular product Made in America. If they have it, I ask them why it isn't being advertised as such.
It is funny, but I always have the clerk or sales person tell me that they get lots of requests for Made in the USA. Why these companies don't get on the stick is beyond me. Maybe they are so stuck on their burping frogs and talking cow commercials that don't work, that they are missing a totally obvious direct marketing gap to dominate? Maybe they are afraid to tick off their suppliers who are drunk on the volume cost savings of having stuff made in third world countries?
Who knows?
But they are missing a golden opportunity.
One of the reasons I am joining forums tailored toward the military and their families is that they are the most patriotic people we have. They also are very no-nonsense thinkers. They ask blount direct questions of themselves and the politicians. Politics aside, our guys need places to work after discharge. A lot of them are not ever going to College for a variety of reasons. The American production sector must become much more vibrant. Money needs to be spent at home to encourage more new manufacturing jobs here.
The politicians listen to the men and women in the military. They are afraid of the appearances if they don't.
If the enlisted and discharged/retired men and women, and their families, took an active role in 1. changing their buying habits, even a little and 2. made it clear to anyone within their base, or command that the politicians must make a strong US job market a priority, I think we would have great change if nothing else was done by anyone.
Jobs are a central issue for the enlisted men and women especially. They need places to work right away when they return to civilian life, where they can live in prosperity without the time and expense of college.
It needs to be repeated and repeated. In the United States, at this time in our history, what the military and their families talk about and do, matters to everybody. You all get attention and it is well earned.
I'll be posting a new topic this week-end on government expenditures for the military and for government entities like Universities.
Maybe you folks could enlighten me: Is there any requirement that the billions spent on defense, be spent domestically with American companies employing American workers? I am not talking sensitive smart bombs or technology. I assume those have to be domestic companies with high clearance. I am talking about new construction materials on bases, uniforms, tools to fix jeeps, food and materials in the px store, that sort of thing. Any imput would be helpful. Maybe forward this post to a bunch of your friends who are in, we're in, or who have family members in so I can get their feed back I really don't know for sure, but I have heard that a lot of money in the defense budget is spent with companies that make stuff overseas. That's our money. Yours and mine. Keep it here and create an economy where the enlisted can return comfortably and pay their bills righ out of the chute.
The last thing anybody wants is somebody who wants out to go live a new life, but stays solely because our economy on the outside stinks. Or a kid who isn't physically or psychologically equipped for the demands of service, but does it solely for economic reasons. Everybody loses in those cases.
The use of taxpayer money for government expenditures, not spent on the American worker, absolutely should be against the law. Everything down to the pencils in the master sergeant's office should be domestically produced in my opinion.
I would love to get a lot of feedback from people who are living it though. I don't want to speak out of turn.
See you all soon,
Nate
www.USAearthmart.com
"We'll find it for ya...."