I try to be loyal, I really do. I got so tired of buying stuff made in China that I recently went through all my tools and sold or gave away any tool that was made in China. I know Craftsman is now having communists make their tools so I quit them and switched to Milwaukee® for all my rechargeable tools naturally thinking that they were made in Wisconsin. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Milwaukee® is owned by a Hong Kong company called Techtronic Industries and the majority of their tools are made in China, Mexico, Europe and get this, Vietnam. Call me old fashioned but I refuse to knowingly buy tools made in a country where 58,220 American GI’s died in the not-so-distant past.
I guess I’ve been a big sucker because I haven’t been inside a Harbor Freight store in years because everything in them seemed to be made by the red Chinese. You walk in the store and it smells like everything just came off the boat. Then I discovered that Harbor Freight is a privately held American company with its headquarters in Calabasses, California.
It’s getting real hard to find a truly American company whose products are made by American hands. Who would have ever guessed that Ben and Jerry would sell out to a foreign conglomerate? Selling out doesn’t sound like anything the two aging hippies would do, but they did. And I always thought that Trader Joes was uniquely American selling uniquely American merchandise until I learned that a giant supermarket chain in Germany owns it.
One of the brands my grandpa proudly sold in his furniture store was Hoover vacuums. He’d roll over in his grave if he knew Hoover was now owned by the same Techtronic Industries in China that also owns and makes Dirt Devils®. When my wife and I last went to Sears I told the salesman I wanted to buy a washer and dryer that was made in America and he laughed in my face. He said whether I bought a Frigidaire®, Kenmore® or any other appliance they were all owned by one or two foreign companies. I said, “What about a GE®?” Nope. GE’s appliance division was sold in 2016 to foreigners.
Monopoly® is made by Hasbro® in plants in China and India, Purina® is owned by Japanese, and every one of the 58 million Barbie® dolls sold every year is made by a Japanese company. In fact, there never has been a Barbie doll made in America! Fisher Price® is making the toys your kids play with in 11 factories in China. Gillette® makes its razors and blades in Poland, Brazil, Mexico and China, and I cancelled my subscription to Forbes Magazine® when I learned that it was sold to a Chinese outfit ten years ago. If you haven’t quit drinking Budweiser® yet maybe you will switch to an America craft beer when you learn that the famous Clydesdales have been owned by a Belgian company for years. We even sold an American oil outfit (Citgo) to Hugo Chavez and his Venezualan cronies.
For gosh sakes, have we no pride?
Little did I know that when I took an Alka-Selzer I was enriching a German company. Motorola® was bought by Google® in 2014 and just like their phones, it was then flipped by Google® and sold to a Chinese outfit, losing ten BILLION dollars on the deal! What says America any better than IBM®? It’s PC division was sold to the same Chinese company where Motorola® ended up.
The list of once proud American companies now owned by foreigners goes on forever: Gerber, Smithfield, Burger King, Holiday Inn, Firestone Tires and Hilton are either majority owned or completely owned by foreigners. Even the famous all-American Waldorf Astoria in New York City is owned by the Chinese.
I gave up buying my flannel shirts at COSTCO® that I really liked because they were made in Vietnam and I quit wearing Levis® that were made in Italy, Japan and China. I figured that surely Hush Puppie® shoes are still made here?
Nope. China, Vietnam and Brazil. If it wasn’t for my cowboy boots I’d already be barefoot because Nike and Converse have plants scattered all over Vietnam.
Due to my boycott of stuff NOT made in America I may be naked soon.
