The other night I watched a riveting HBO documentary called Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags about the evisceration of the once-thriving US garment industry. The word schmatta is Yiddish for rag and slang for the garments that come from a few-block area of Manhattan, giving us the garment industry nickname, the rag trade.
One takeaway from the documentary is this: in 1965, 95% of the clothing sold in the US was made right here. In 2009, the figure is only 5%.
No surprise, then, that the International Ladies Garment Workers Union lost more than 300,000 members between 1968 and the early 1990s. Their jobs were gone. You know where most went. And they’re not coming back.
As a nation, we’ve sold millions of American workers down the river in a never-ending quest for always the lowest price, always -- a concept spawned in the anti-union South at a union-busting behemoth whose idea of a living wage has included encouraging employees to use Medicaid to pay for health care. You can’t have always the lowest price on merchandise without cheap labor making it and selling it.
Overseas cheap is the norm now. Walk into your local polyester palace, a chain store selling fabrics and crafts, and notice that nearly everything for sale, always inexpensive, is made in China. Perhaps you’ll spot a display of American flag-themed fabrics for the Fourth of July and say to an employee, as I did, “I hope those aren’t from China too.” And perhaps you’ll hear the answer I did: “No. They’re from Uzbekistan.” Visit a dollar store and remind yourself that everything there was made so deep on the cheap that the usually-Chinese manufacturers and the middleman vendors made profits and the retailer is profiting enough to pay for the store, its upkeep and its employees. All from one measly dollar.
We are literally indebted to foreign countries for the defecit spending and national debt that prop up our way of life. As of May, the US treasury owed China alone $772 billion. Little wonder that when President Obama went to China this week I thought, Oh, he’s visiting the home office.
Update: A Washington Post analysis of Obama’s trip says as of yesterday, the US owed China more than $1 trillion, an astonishing increase since 1998.
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Mike Keefe
Denver Post Nov 15, 2009 |
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
My commitment this year already is to “an American Christmas”. Your post here only solidifies my resolve. I’ll be putting an entry into WeatherUnderground and possibly WordPress, and will reference the information you’ve provided here.
The point is that every one of my gifts this year is going to be either handmade by an independent American artisan, or from an American company specializing in local products. Cutting boards from my woodworking friend in the Texas Hill Country, dried cherries, jams and butters from American Spoon Foods in Michigan, pecans from a family-run farm in Georgia… These are the people we need to support, and the people I will support with my dollars and my blogs.
It isn’t much, but it’s something that I can do. Ten thousand people doing it would make a difference. A hundred thousand, or five hundred thousand? We would be, as they say, “in business”.
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That’s a fabulous idea, shore, and I’m sure the artisans and craftspeople will appreciate the business, especially in this economy. Only the government (or a geopolitical crisis) and a willingness by big retailers to be less greedy (hah!) can make big changes possible, but we are not without choice and can vote with our wallets. I feel so strongly about what has been allowed to happen, even encouraged by presidents since Reagan, that when I built my Amazon store, the first section I created is called Made in the USA with some of the best we have to offer. The next was Nibbles, Noshes & Sips with a lot of exquisite American items, so if you get stuck for an idea, please click on over and take a look.
My favorite gifts are the handmade ones. Ages ago, when I lived in this area before, I had an elderly neighbor I ran errands for or would pick up things at the supermarket when I was going. For Christmas she gave me a tree ornament she made, an elaborate star cut from paper (typing paper, I think, nothing fancy) and I cherish it to this day. I might have forgotten her long ago if not for that little scissors project she gave me. Memories can’t be bought.
Hi Ella. I totally agree with your base sentiment and facts here. However, until the mavericks that manage the global economic markets are reined in, there is little hope for the ‘re-birth’ of a viable manufacturing sector in North America. I’m not talking ‘handi-crafts’ or even ‘custom studio works’. I’m talking about MANUFACTURING products – created en masse – to satiate the lifestyle demands of the middle class. Compound this with a diminishing SKILLED labour force, with an engrained ’snobbish’ posturing about those who DO labour and the death knoll has tolled.
As long as middle class shareholders continue receiving dividends from corporations who ‘out source off shore’, no change to the MIND SET will occur. We can spend our dollar here, but when we get our dividend cheque from Apple, Nokia, or even Exxon – or even mutual funds that HOLD these stocks – we are RESPONSIBLE for perpetuating the problem.
The ‘unskilled’ lower class in America is MOCKED, parodied on t.v., and dumped on. SKILLED labourers, who generally make a pittance relative to their knowledge and skill of craftsmanship, are snowballed into the same category. These ‘characters’ are not the same and we are mistaken to lump them ALL together. Until these ‘relationships’ between the classes are realized for what they are, are MENDED, and until some RESPECT re-enters the equation, I see no resolution or resurgence here of the labouring class, skilled or unskilled. The poor will get much poorer, the middle class will cling to their dollar store AND handicraft purchases to TRY to STAY middle class. And the rich, the VERY rich, will continue to invest off-shore with impuntiy: where their returns are significant, safety and environmental concerns are ignored and stock markets are willing to underwrite/exploit their combined greed & ambition …
Also, for what it’s worth, the debt situation in America is dire, it’s a problem that’s about to hit critical mass, primarily because the banking giants and governments who are flinging around ‘credit’ KNOW that ‘credit’ is worthless. THat’s why they keep propping each other up with ‘billions’ and ‘trillions’. But, any SANE person can SEE, credit is not CASH, it is not tangible, it is ‘illusionary’ at best. No surprise then that the RESERVE bank of India just bought 6 billion worth of GOLD …. The American dollar is in very serious danger of collapsing altogether. ‘Creditors’ are very aware of this and are quietly and quickly diversifying, trying to play their FAKE money into TANGIBLE ASSETS. Gold is now trading over $1000 an ounce.
I get angry about this because I respect workers, regardless of class.
I detest those who slime around chasing ‘the buck’ – “buying low, selling high, scoring big” – the modus operandi of genuinely SKILLESS middlemen who gave up working with their hands & hearts decades ago. What has to be understood is that Greed is a MIND SET and it’s a growing global problem. It’s not going away anytime soon until we ACCEPT that ‘we’ are as much a part of the ‘problem’ as ‘they’ are. We have to stop ‘passing the buck’, saying it’s ‘the other guys fault’, never OUR OWN. The ONLY way to do this is to diligently, carefully, and consciously make DAILY choices that amplify a THOUGHTFULNESS not only about humanity, near and far, but respects the life-sustaining planet that supports ALL life as we know it.
phew … that just spilled out …
canadada´s last blog ..“Artspeak!” – Converse like a Critic!
Definition of Hitting a Nerve: see above.
Hi, there! LTNS.
Yep, you’re angry alright, and with good reason. Your points are excellent, especially about mocking laborers. Even skilled laborers, tradesmen if you will, are looked down upon…but why? To those “above” who denigrate them I ask — when it comes to 15 minutes of someone’s time for a quick fix, which bill do you dread more: the plumber’s or the dentist’s? The electrician’s or the dermatologist’s?
When Tianenmen Square didn’t cause Washington to suspend China’s Most Favored Nation trade status for even one minute, I knew the game was over. That’s why I mentioned geopolitical crisis in my reply to shore. At this point, I think China would have to bomb us for any change to MFN and of course, they won’t. Not if they want their almost-trillion dollars back.
Good to see you, as always.
China already ‘owns’ a HUGE chunk of America thru the debt. Rest assured, they are the ones who will be setting ‘the terms’, not Americans. Who knows WHAT they will EXACT, short and long term.
My guess is resouces, prime American real estate, access to ‘closed’ markets, trade sanctions & restrictions elsewhere on the globe, (ie. butt out of Darfur, actually ALL of Africa…) and first dibs on manufacturing processes for innovative technological products. In other words, situation normal as per existing status quo. China is on the rise, and America is in decline.
How ironic that while a gaggle of American businesses used China for ’slave labour’ for decades, they were stock-piling their pennies and bought out most of the farm! The politicians, the banks, the global markets all KNOW this, they just haven’t spelled it out all nice and simple for us ‘ordinary folk’. The middle/lower class want stuff ‘cheap’ and manufacturers out-sourced to make profits, China filled the bill, and now we’ve ALL got to LIVE with the global consequences.
o me, o my. What’s fretting is that there is no easy solution. It’s frustrating because we did not HAVE to go down this road, yet, clearly we did CHOOSE it. I agree with your primary point, it is fundamentally about consuming greed that has pushed and positioned us to the point where we are today.
We really can LEARN to live with LESS ’stuff’.
Truth is now we are going to have to, except, of course, I aint’ givin’ up any of your good food!
Keep at it EllaElla.
canadada´s last blog ..“Artspeak!” – Converse like a Critic!
If you ever run across a documentary on TV or at the video store called The High Cost of Low Prices, do make time for it. It might even be online. It’s about that behemoth retailer whose name I never want indexed with this site and it’s just devastating. There’s plenty of greed blame to go around, from consumers as you say to the top. A sequel to Wall Street is being filmed and I’m anxious to see what the “greed is good” message has become.
If the recession (which was probably a depression for a brief time) didn’t teach people about living with less stuff, nothing will. (I sound like Debbie Downer, I know. I’m just a realist.)
As of yesterday, our debt to China exceeds $1 trillion. When Bill Clinton visited in 1998, the US owed more money to Spain than to China and did twice as much business with Mexico.
i know, it’s a shocker …. that is a generational debt.
(Most of Africa is locked into generational debt, meaning, it will take several generations to dig out from under … )
What I also find interesting at the moment is the ’spin’.
It is intriguing that Obama is going THERE, and they aren’t, high profile’, coming here. Superficially, it’s ‘diplomacy’, but in fact, he’s there with cap in hand.* The only other thing that China might want from America is their warfare technology … always a big seller internationally…..
I’ll keep an eye peeled for that suggested flick. Thanks.
* There was a photo in past weekend’s Globe & Mail that had Obama in a Mao cap, on tourist buttons …
canadada´s last blog ..“Artspeak!” – Converse like a Critic!
p.s. … this just in … fyi –
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BEIJING (Nov 18, 2009)
In six hours of meetings and a stilted 30-minute news conference in which President Hu Jintao did not allow questions, U.S. President Barack Obama was confronted with a fast-rising China more willing to say no to the U.S.
On topics such as Iran (Hu did not publicly discuss the possibility of sanctions), China’s currency (he made no nod toward changing its value) and human rights (a joint statement bluntly acknowledged that the two countries “have differences”), China held firm against most American demands.
With China’s micro-management of Obama’s appearances in the country, the trip did more to showcase China’s ability to push back against outside pressure than it did to advance the main issues on Obama’s agenda, analysts said.
“China effectively stage-managed President Obama’s public appearances, got him to make statements endorsing Chinese positions … and effectively squelched discussions of contentious issues such as human rights and China’s currency policy,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a China specialist at Cornell University. “In a masterstroke, they shifted the public discussion from the global risks posed by Chinese currency policy to the dangers of loose monetary policy and protectionist tendencies in the U.S.”
Thanks! The Washington Post analysis I linked to in an update at the end of the post is excellent too. It’s where I saw the trillion-dollar figure.
One upside is that our fondness for cheap Chinese stuff helps them to buy our stuff and apparently there’s quite an appetite for it. A couple days ago I read a piece about the huge popularity of Mary Kay cosmetics in China. Whoda thunk?
… yes, the whole sphere/nature of ‘cultural cross-pollination’ is fascinating.
Let’s just hope that ‘burkas’ don’t become a global ‘fashion trend’! The notion of living under a sheet in broad daylight hidden from view is just too weird for words. The alternate extreme, of course, of ‘over-sexing’ women thru advertising (and surgery) is equally repugnant.
Women are meant to be loved, as are men, not ‘packaged’. That said, we do so ‘like’, and even cling, to our carefully crafted ‘illusions’ – for WHATEVER reasons …
Humanity has got to be the strangest species on the planet. Diversity is healthy, but individual development is best. ‘Cultural cultivation’ does, intially, bind us to our own ‘tribe’, but to be the best we CAN be – we still have to develop, expand and explore our OWN noggins and ’shapes’, male or female. It’s a whole big wide world and CHOICE is critical to our species successful evolution.
If people – for lack of skill, resouces, time, energy & finance – are unable to ‘produce’ their dreams/visions/imaginative ‘ideas’, we ALL suffer. If our imaginative juices succumb to Big Corporate Players, ie. the mega-definers & arbiters of ‘taste’ (like Mary Kay, or, to be site specific, MacDonalds …), we effectively ‘give up’ our own budding uniqueness.
(I personally do like alot of the new ‘fusion’ foodfare that’s coming down the pike, especially the ‘i-thai’ blend of spices. Flavouring haibut, as example, with lemongrass AND oregano AND mint is a whole NEW taste sensation. It may not catch on EVERYWHERE, and let’s hope it doesn’t, cuz in a similar sense, I don’t want to wear a burka – full time! It has to be a ‘choice’ not a ‘condition’. )
… Right now, technology and financal constructs are PUSHING us. This is increasingly becoming a ‘condition’, not a choice. The only way to effectively STOP this Push, is to THINK, and then CHOOSE. We all have that individual purchasing power. We’ve got to start using it a bit more judiciously. Here & abroad.
canadada´s last blog ..“Artspeak!” – Converse like a Critic!
I love pan-Asian and Asian fusion food! I’m not sure what’s behind your burqua fears but I think you can rest assured nobody in North America’s going to be forced to wear one.
Thanks for the kind words about the design. I had fun doing it, being a propeller-head from way back.
p.s. … meant to say, by the way, that I am liking the ‘new look’ of your blog, it’s really coming along well … kudos kiddo