We Don't Make Shit Anymore

When I was still in Cincinnati, I remember we use to make shit. People would come home from work, and I knew there went somewhere and made...something. It didn't matter what it was, it just seemed like it contributed to our identity as Americans. It was equally as cool (being a kid and all) when the shit that that person made were toys. Kenner was a company in Cincinnati. I remember a neighbor of mine's relatives worked at that factory. Kenner was the company that made the "Star Wars" toys back in the late 70's to early 80's. Ran out of stock, since the demand far exceeded the production. I LOVED that those toys were made in Ohio. They're now gone.

I think we took a wrong approach on "Made in America." That push to make Americans proud to buy American products were always trumped by (obviously) economics. Factories were able to do it cheaper elsewhere (never mind they stomped on human rights). But, they really underestimated the American apathy for where stuff was made, if it meant saving green up front for little Jimmy's college fund. Nowadays, we do have a similar workforce, except we're not paying them as much as union labor and they're most likely not American citizens. This leads to the same money going out, and none coming in.

I think where we went wrong is being too short sighted. I think the foreign markets fucked us royally by dangling money up front. They knew we couldn't resist with our capitalist mentality. We want what we want when we want it. I mean, we still have that mentality, except now we're so manufacture poor, we're now parked on "entitled." Super bad combination. I recall going to a vintage camera show. I had a wad of cash with me. I started talking down a guy for a lens. He balked. For which I pulled out said wad and waved it at him. Of course, I was playing on his emotion to $. And he bit. That is what this is like.

I'm not placing all the blame on us as Americans. We are who we are. We're really that high profile gangster in prison who has a TON of street cred where people still consult, but without certain ability to be in the forefront of running things, can only regulate so much. This starts to diminish our influence in the world. I can feel it. I'm sure most others can too.

I really hope that in the upcoming decade, we do bring back to "making stuff" in America. And that the worker gets paid fairly to work. I would support any business that kept it in-house. I mean, entertainment and logistics is all we got now. Pretty soon, we're gonna wonder why we even have logistics when there's nothing to move around.

Let's make stuff. Let's force the other people around us to take our wares. Let's make the Chinese walk into an American store and gripe about our products.