Sometimes certain stories bug me when I read the news. CNN has a Political Ticker that publishes news regarding US politics, and since President Obama as become headline news, I check out news about politics more than ever.
Articles that grace CNN’s headlines are usually carefully worded to spark interest and to get people to read the article. The tone of the article is usually inline with the headline and today’s headlines are not any different. So, any ‘made in china’ headline always spark my interest because they are usually all negative news.
A CNN headline reads, “Capitol Visitors Center told to send back ‘Made in China’ items“. Okay. At first glance you are probably thinking “Okay, items that are ‘made in china’ can’t be sold in the Capitol Visitor Centers.” But it’s such a bold statement for such a small action, I can already feel myself getting upset.
When you start reading the article (and the commentary below the article) you learn that one House representative Bob Brady from Pennsylvania has banned the Capitol Visitors Center from selling souvenirs that bare the ‘made in china’ sticker. The article goes on to say:
Brady, whose district includes Philadelphia, insists it’s wrong for tourists to return home with a souvenir from the nation’s capital that bears a “‘Made in China’ sticker.” 
“Wrong?” Now, I am all for patriotism and being born in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I understand the pride and support of American made products, but why is there such a need to target and associate ‘made in china’ with being unpatriotic and un-supportive of products made in the USA? (FYI, unpatriotic is a word I’m choosing, it wasn’t a word mentioned in the CNN article.)
I am most certainly drawing my own conclusions here, but these types of public actions by politicians makes me wonder why we would need to make a point that US made products should be purchased in the Capitol Visitor Center. This is a nation based on fair trade and capitalism, shouldn’t the best products with the best prices be offered to the customer? Aren’t we friends with China and don’t we have stake in China’s economy as much as they have stake in ours? (if you don’t believe me do some research and get back to me).
Instead of locking up the souvenirs, I think the products from ‘made in china’ should have a cage match with ‘made in the USA’ products at the Capitol Visitor Center gift shop. Given the choice between the two products, it would be more beneficial to teach the consumer the difference between products that are “made in china” and “made in the USA”. The quality and the workman ship should speak for itself and the American people deserve the best, so let them decide which is better.
If we are truly patriot and supportive of the products made in the USA, shouldn’t the consumer draw it’s own conclusion rather than smearing the name of “made in china” products? Much like how the word terrorist is smeared with the geographical term the middle east, and how the word Nazi is smeared with the country of Germany, sometimes these associations need to stop.
Although I think this is a great way to spark enthusium and to promote US products, this seems like a mighty small step into the direction that we should have been dealing with decades ago.
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