How important is "Made in the USA" to you?

"Made in USA" doesn't guarantee that the actual person on the sewing machine is good at their job, anymore than "Made in China" guarantees that construction is inferior. It does, however, mean it's more likely (though not certain) that the person got paid a fair amount for their work. It's pretty likely that it was an Asian immigrant who made it anyway if its US made. Of course you can always question whether that factory job in China, even if it pays crap, is keeping somebody out of poverty...

As someone who has been to quite a few factories in China, I have zero reservations about buying Chinese-made goods. Ethical arguments are spurious, with rare exception.



pickpackpockpuck said:

"Made in USA" doesn't guarantee that the actual person on the sewing machine is good at their job, anymore than "Made in China" guarantees that construction is inferior. It does, however, mean it's more likely (though not certain) that the person got paid a fair amount for their work. It's pretty likely that it was an Asian immigrant who made it anyway if its US made. Of course you can always question whether that factory job in China, even if it pays crap, is keeping somebody out of poverty...

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Always willing to pay more for made in the US

Paying solely for the fact that a product was manufactured in a certain location does a disservice to the advancement of globalization and promotes illogical nationalism. I'd pay more for the Made in China and then make forum posts about it just to piss of rednecks.



Teger said:

Quick poll - curious on responses.

Hypothetical scenario:

Two pairs of pants, identical fit.

First pair is Made in China, $100

Second pair is Made in the USA, $150

Which would you buy?

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First pair.

Teger said:

Why?

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Because of where I am.

It would be a hypothetical scenario, because I don't think I could find Made in USA pants.

Not living in the US I'm probably not your target audience, but you'll get my thoughts anyway

There is a bit of me that likes the idea of a company maintaining a history of production in the UK that stretches back.

I might pay a small premium for two products of identical quality if one was made in the UK over one made overseas, but certainly not an additional 50%.

For me Made in USA has no emotional pull over made anywhere else.

If treatment of employees was my major concern, I'd stick to European made over US made (correct me if I'm wrong, but US Employee rights aren't that great compared to European ones - the idea of 'at will' employment is a strange concept).

The clothing industry has never had a great reputation for the treatment of employees, be it in the UK or overseas.

Whilst my feeling is there are probably greater abuses in poorer countries than richer ones a quick search brings up a lot of results for illegal/morally questionable practices in both the UK and US:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/retail-giants-shamed-by-uk-sweatshops-2128022.html
http://www.good.is/posts/ethical-style-there-are-still-sweatshops-in-america

I suspect that in the UK at least, there is also a lot of home piece work that is truly exploitative...

Is it still the case that jeans produced in Samoa, Guam, Saipan etc. can be labelled as Made in the USA, whilst being exempt from US labor laws?



ManofKent said:

Not living in the US I'm probably not your target audience, but you'll get my thoughts anyway

There is a bit of me that likes the idea of a company maintaining a history of production in the UK that stretches back.

I might pay a small premium for two products of identical quality if one was made in the UK over one made overseas, but certainly not an additional 50%.

For me Made in USA has no emotional pull over made anywhere else.

If treatment of employees was my major concern, I'd stick to European made over US made (correct me if I'm wrong, but US Employee rights aren't that great compared to European ones - the idea of 'at will' employment is a strange concept).

The clothing industry has never had a great reputation for the treatment of employees, be it in the UK or overseas.

Whilst my feeling is there are probably greater abuses in poorer countries than richer ones a quick search brings up a lot of results for illegal/morally questionable practices in both the UK and US:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/retail-giants-shamed-by-uk-sweatshops-2128022.html
http://www.good.is/posts/ethical-style-there-are-still-sweatshops-in-america

I suspect that in the UK at least, there is also a lot of home piece work that is truly exploitative...

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It used to be terrible. One of my first jobs was a homeworker, stuffing electronic components into circuit boards at an extremely low piece-rate. I suspect there's laws governing homeworking in the UK now, may be difficult to enforce though. There's sweat-shops in the UK as well, which are apparel industry. Couple years ago there was a BBC investigation into Primark using illegal sweat-shop labour in Manchester.



notwithit said:

I'll pay a premium for MIUSA, but not necessarily over concerns related to heritage/quality/isolationism/moderate xenophobia. I like the idea of wearing clothing that I'm relatively certain wasn't produced using slave labor. I'm not saying that there are no sweatshops in America or that every factory in outside of the "first world" underpays and abuses its workers. If something seems to cost considerably less than it should, though, there's a decent chance that slave labor (or something close to it) was used at some point in the production process.

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same here. I avoid Chinese made crap whenever possible, although, nowadays this is hard to do because everything seems to be made in China. For me it is an issue of fair labor practices and I dislike the idea that some 10 year old sewed a pair of pants for me for next to nothing, versus a well-paid laborer in the US who would at least be making a livable wage. most clothing companies source their production overseas, whether it be Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Honduras or India. Conversely, i'll pay a premium for other foreign made product, namely, English made shoes, because I know my money is being well spent and it supports companies that hand-make their goods. it's about where your values lie.



gaseousclay said:

same here. I avoid Chinese made crap whenever possible, although, nowadays this is hard to do because everything seems to be made in China. For me it is an issue of fair labor practices and I dislike the idea that some 10 year old sewed a pair of pants for me for next to nothing, versus a well-paid laborer in the US

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Could very well be low wage migrant Mexican labour, especially if it's apparel.

gaseousclay said:

who would at least be making a livable wage. most clothing companies source their production overseas, whether it be Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Honduras or India. Conversely, i'll pay a premium for other foreign made product, namely, English made shoes, because I know my money is being well spent and it supports companies that hand-make their goods. it's about where your values lie.

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You know your English shoes could have least been party made by low paid homeworkers, or even low paid migrant Indian or Polish workers in the factories.

I wonder what the homeworking situation is like around the Northampton area, with footwear companies outsourcing certain aspects of the shoe making process? I used to be a homeworker in the United Kingdom, I know what it can be like.

Basically employee exploitation can happen anywhere.

gaseousclay said:

I avoid Chinese made crap whenever possible...I dislike the idea that some 10 year old sewed a pair of pants for me for next to nothing....

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I find this kind of hyperbole tiresome, especially as it tends to come from those who, more often than not, have no actual experience in the matter. So I went ahead and dug some photos out of my phone of a couple of typical Chinese apparel factories.











Can you spot all the injustices?! I considered enumerating why these people really haven't got it all that bad, but the onus really isn't on me to do so.

I find this kind of hyperbole tiresome, especially as it tends to come from those who, more often than not, have no actual experience in the matter. So I went ahead and dug some photos out of my phone of a couple of typical Chinese apparel factories.

Can you spot all the injustices?! I considered enumerating why these people really haven't got it all that bad, but the onus really isn't on me to do so.

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likewise, I find the defense of a country that is known to have poor labor and manufacturing standards a bit tiresome. just because your link doesn't show any children sewing Nike shoes doesn't mean their workers have a high standard of living. and let's be real, telling people your clothes are made in China doesn't exactly scream quality.



hoodyear said:

As someone who has been to quite a few factories in China, I have zero reservations about buying Chinese-made goods. Ethical arguments are spurious, with rare exception.

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C'mon, it's not exactly a secret that lots of worker abuses have been recorded at factories in China. Not every Chinese factory is awful, but they do exist. That's why I phrased what I said up above in terms of likelihood.

http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/index.html
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_40/b3701119.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I would pay a reasonable premium if the quality is as good or better. But, it really comes down to quality.