Daniel_

ASU2003: In a country as big as the US, buying "National" and buying "Local" are distinctly different.

If you're in NY state, you are reducing transport miles to buy from Ontario compared to buying from California, so in green terms it could be better to buy from abroad.

The ideas expressed in the thread so far include statements that China has forced the US to buy; which I love - China has not forced the US to buy, they've used the free market against you. And so far they're winning.

US consumers want to own and use more of the world's resources per capita than any other place on earth, and they're not concerned about whether the goods come from an American factory or a foreign one; until their local factory closes down.

It tickles me to see Americans claiming that the Asian factories cut corners, slash standards, falsify results in order to win contracts. Look at luxury cars - some of the best names are German, and these companies have higher barriers to entry than US, higher manning levels, higher energy costs, more health safety and environmental restrictions, and make more expensive cars; but they sell them to you, and you buy them.

You think asian quality sucks? How about your iphone and ipod? Good American design, sure, superlative build quality, and aspirational products; all made in China.

How many people posting here actually have direct contact with Chinese factories? I do - I am responsible for vetting Chinese (and other nationalities) plants for the production of medical devices. The good ones offer brilliant service levels, knowlegable staff, very high specification goods, and all for a lower price than I can make in Europe (by a factor of 3 in some cases) even after you've factored in the transport costs.

Also in many cases the carbon footprint of using China is lower, as you're shipping bulk containers by sea, not small loads by road. It uses more carbon for me to buy 20 pallets of goods made 200 miles away than it does to bring in the same goods half way round the world by sea.

Protectionism is silly, as in the end it forces prices up, forces everyone to raise the drawbridges, and forces taxes up and jobs down.

In the UK there are more jobs ordering, warehousing, delivering, designing, selling, retailing, servicing, accounting for, and so on, foreign made goods than there ever were making locally - the goods are better, the prices are lower, and last time I checked, we're not all living in tin shacks wondering where our jobs in the mines, mills and steelworks went.

If protectionism was the rule, we'd be knee deep in wagonwheel makers, subsidised by the state to "save local jobs" making a product that nobody wants or needs.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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