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Comment by MathCodeLove | Hacker News Reader

You can choose to buy from companies who only operate domestically

Why don't you? Why is it unethical to save a penny for a stockholder yet it isn't unethical for you to save a penny by buying foreign produced goods? Sure, there are many specific brands unavailable domestically, but you can find some variation of everything you need locally.

Even if there are exceptions to that, I would bet you rarely choose to purchase domestic goods because they're too expensive. Supply chains operate at the maximum possible efficiency to save you as much money as possible. If you're willing to spend more to uphold your ideals, then do it. You already have the option.

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I work in manufacturing and even if any nation wanted to completely domesticate consumer goods, we’re still at the mercy of either raw materials being imported or industrial machines not being made domestically. At least, not the ones that produce the quality goods that we so demand.

Tim Cook famously said that Apple can’t move manufacturing to the US because the US does not have the industrial engineers needed to make and run those factories.

Ever see American Made on Netflix? Chinese industrial capacity, processes and standards are on some different level of refinement.

I never said the products you buy domestically will be of the same quality or caliber as those afforded to you by an efficient global supply chain - just that it is an option if you feel strongly about this. You'll have to make some sacrifices here and there but hey, if you're not willing to sacrifice a little for your beliefs then you must not hold them too strongly.

It’s not possible for a single average consumer to support domestic industry on their narrow shoulders. It typically takes some sort of collective action, often in the form of government trade policy.

The collective is nothing but many individuals. While I'm not accusing you specifically of this, I feel as if these sort of responses are often used as a way to shirk the responsibility of taking any action for the causes one claims to support.

It's a fair point to make, but doesn't mean that OP shouldn't be doing their part by buying domestically if they really hate that some products get manufactured in another country. If everyone who complained about this issue decides to only buy domestically the domestic market would be much stronger.

To some extent I get it, but that ignores the very real and obvious psychological issue of "going it alone" and feeling as if you are not impacting anything while paying the price. See: The United States and others trying to push a climate-change agenda while India and China say "fuck you" and keep dumping into rivers and ramping up coal production. If we "do our part" all we do is lose out while others destroy our economy and planet.

At the "buy all American", I disagree with your point that I could possibly source everything in my house from the United States even if I had a million dollars - and if I could, though it would make me feel better, it doesn't change the macro fact.

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