Conservative But NOT Religious: Please Buy American and Help Stimulate the U.S. Economy

Our elected officials are doing the best they can to stimulate the economy. But truth be told there is only so much that they can do in a free market economy. The real stimulus and boost to the economy will come quickly once Americans start purchasing American goods. I am going to focus on shoes but this can be applied to other tangible goods purchases.

In the 1960s, the United States made 98 percent of its shoes. It now imports more than 90 percent of its footwear. The iconic red Radio Flyer wagons for children are now made in China. Even the Apple iPod comes in a box that says it was made in China but "designed in California." Men Own an Average of 12 Pairs of Shoes; Women Own an Average of 27 Pairs. The average man owns 0.4 pairs of shoes made in the US approximately 0 pairs of shoes. It also means the average woman owns approximately 1 pair of shoes made in the US. Footwear retailers in the U.S. generated approximately $25.3 billion in revenue in 2009 (excluding internet and catalog sales), representing roughly half of the U.S. $53 billion footwear industry. U.S. footwear manufacturers represented a much smaller portion of the industry in 2009 generating an estimated $1.9 billion in revenue. Which means the actual number of US manufactured shoes sold is only 3.6%. If Americans were to purchase 10% percent of their shoes from US manufacturers (on average 1.2 pairs of shoes for men and 2.7 pairs of shoes for women) the US manufactured shoe sales would nearly triple generating an estimated $5.7 billion in revenue in one year.

Employment in the footwear manufacturing industry has dropped dramatically in the United States in only 5 years. By 2002, there were less than 20,000 workers employed in U.S. footwear manufacturing. US footwear manufacturers could potentially hire nearly an additional 40,000 workers if 10% of shoes purchased by Americans were US made. In addition, any good business responds to market signals and if businesses begin seeing a trend of purchasing US made footwear they will make more available. This could potentially pump several billions back into the US economy in the long term. Our government can only give us short term stimulus. The American consumer is a very powerful force to be reckoned with and can change the entire economy in a short amount of time by simply buying or not buying. The market signals the American consumer is currently sending is that name brand is more important than American made. The market responded by giving us more name brands. Because the consumer did not care where the shoes were manufacture the businesses did not either. If the consumer were to suddenly care whether or not their shoes were made in the US, companies would respond likewise.

If Americans were to purchase 10% percent of all their tangible goods from US manufacturers not just shoes for one year the US economy would have a 10% increase (that's obvious). Americans generate about $17,580,635,232,096.38 in income annually. That could be increased to about $19 trillion. I got the idea that Americans could stimulate the economy simultaneously with the US Government after reading an email I received from Made in the USA Forever's Todd Libscomb. The email discussed that the Real Stimulus is for Americans to Buy American. You can read it here. Made in the USA Forever sells all American made products. This is their website.