[Bravo1-3]

Trying to "Buy American" is next to impossible. If you buy a GM vehicle, what you are buying is a vehicle that was "Assembled in America" with the parts sourced in Canada, Mexico, Korea, and a few other places. All of the big 3 auto makers buy a great deal of the "parts for parts" overseas and assemble as few of them as is legally possible here in order to meet the legal definition of "American Made".

"Parts for Parts " means that they build as many sub assemblies as possible to make a finished part. They go so far as to manufacture a percentage of a part overseas, and finish it domestically. They'll buy "blanks" that can be finished domestically as well. A simple theoretical example (because I am not a car guy, and I can't cite a specific example): Lets say you wanted to buy 10,000,000 8- Penny nails. Some factory in Korea would draw the wire to length and cut it to length, then ship it to you. You then put them on your stamping machine and stamp a head and point on them. You now have a "Made in the USA" nail since all you started with is a rough shape.

Now picture all the screws, washers, bolts, clips etc in your car being made in similar fashion.

It is almost impossible to buy a product that is 100% American made, 100% American sourced unless you buy uncomplicated items from small manufacturers.

While you are supporting American Labor if you buy a Honda built in Alabama, you’re exporting US Dollars off shore. The problem is that now if you buy an AMERICAN brand, you’re doing the SAME THING. I ignore all of the hype attributed to “Look for the Union Label” or “Support Union Labor” etc, because it has been meaningless for a decade.

The American Labor Movement has done more damage to this country for their own benefit than any other entity in economic history. They have given the term “Made in America” the same meaning that “Made in China” had in the early 80’s… zero.

A little anecdote on my part:
In my last real job, I went to a meeting with some Deputies from some counties in Central Michigan. We were sitting in a bar in Lansing having a beer. This jackass behind us works at the Pontiac plant up the road. He’s bitching about his job as if he was being tortured all day.

I finally got sick of listening to him and told him “If you hate your job so much, why don’t you quit?”

We got to talking. He worked on the “Headlight Line”, installing headlights in the Grand Prix. As we’re talking, he’s describing what he does… basically, he drops in the LEFT headlight on every car that comes to his station. He then installs the screws that don’t have anything to do with aligning the headlight. He gets at least 8 hours of OT every week, and gets his hours rounded up, so if he works for 1 hour and 15 minutes, he gets paid for 2 hours. He doesn’t align the lights, or connect the harness. He just puts in the light and sets the screws that hold it in. He doesn’t even do BOTH sides, jut the LEFT side. He doesn’t even go get more lights when he starts to run out, someone else does it. Someone else connects the harnesses, and aligns the lights. This guy was making $26.50 per hour, with 100% benefits, an almost guaranteed job for his kids thanks to union patronage, 2 months vacation during retooling and the list goes on and on.

The whole time, I’m thinking to myself that this guy and all of his friends are the reason manufacturing is dying in this country.