Buy Eh-merican

I have been known to hold forth a time or two about things that I believe in. (See posts with "soapbox" labels.)

Recently, I have struggled again with what it means to "buy American" or "buy Canadian," expecially as those concepts intersect with "buy local." One example I used was apples, and how Wisconsin apples are more "local" here in Thunder Bay than BC apples are.

The New York Times recently ran an interactive feature that helps make my point in relation to the auto industry. Go here. It's pretty cool. Not a fabulous example of interactivity but not bad for a staid, traditional print newspaper.

Anyway, it's useful. You can see from this feature that, for example, the Mazda B-series pickup is assembled in St. Paul, MN, from transmissions that come from either Japan or France and engines from either Germany or the U.S. So are Mazdas assembled in Minnesota really "furrin" cars?

But what about a Ford, a quintessential "Murrican" vehicle? The Ford Explorer, say? Well, according to this feature, the Kentucky plant takes transmissions from the U.S. or France, adds in engines from Germany or the U.S., and makes an "American" car.

So yes, it's possible that all the parts come from the U.S. and are assembled in the U.S. But it's also possible that these "American" cars are part Canadian, part Mexican, part European, and part Asian.

Now scroll down to the bottom. Here are "American" cars assembled in Mexico and Canada.

And can I just add that it's entirely possible that a car fully manufactured and assembled in the U.S.--even from U.S.-made components and raw materials (unlikely)--is made in a plant using energy that relies on oil imported from Canada?

One part of this whole "buy whatever" discussion that makes me nuts is that for years--decades--we've heard lots about the "global economy" and the "shrinking world" we live in.

As in: "We take advantage of today's global economy to outsource our materials acquisitions to Canada and Africa, our customer service to Brazil and India, our manufacturing to Indonesia and South Korea, and our marketing to citizen journalists, all of which lets us rightsize our domestic workforce and achieve economies of scale." Bleah.

So suddenly those international agreements and supposed advantages of the global marketplace aren't important? What?

How about, instead of buying "American," we buy things we need instead of things we want? Let's buy high-quality things that are designed well, work well, and last a long time. Let's make art and tell each other stories. Let's take care of each other, including those in other countries whose work has made so much possible for us. Let's go outdoors and play, under our own power. Quick, while it's sunny.