Saturday, January 26, 2008

Importing products

I think I will ramble for a while.

I hear that, a lot of businesses are complaining about the drop off of business, people who use to drop into the restaurants 2 or 3 times a week, but now they only see some of them once and some of them once every couple of weeks! The restaurant owner was talking to a news reporter last week about his business dropping off and it looks like he will have to lay some workers off if it doesn’t improve! Let us say that these customers were producing a lot of the merchandise, fruit and vegetables that these businesses sell to their customers. The very people who provide raw materials to these businesses, the beef and vegetables to the restaurants, Toys for the kiddies, cabinetry and furniture for the furniture stores, the paper mill, the automobile dealerships and all the other places of business around a typical city.
Let’s look at it like this; the restaurants around town, have started to buy their food products from another country to save a dollar or two on this and that. The auto dealerships are importing other country’s autos. The cabinetry and furniture are being imported. Dangerous toys are being imported; and when their business starts to dwindle, they start crying and asking, WHY? It’s because a few workers at the cabinet shop were laid off, and a couple lost their jobs at the auto dealership and all the others. The money they use to make wasn’t there anymore to spend at the businesses around town! Some couldn’t pay their rent / house payments, so what happened to these people? Well they had to go on welfare just to survive! And who pays for that? The people who still have an income and paying taxes, that’s who! It is my opinion that if someone decides to stop trading with a place of business, then they should tell them, when they start supporting the community, state, country, whatever the case, then they will support their business! I know that you can see where this is going!
Now taking everything into consideration, and for the savings of a couple of dollars, the city is slowly being destroyed and in the long run these businesses are losing in a big way!! With this one city about to die, there are a lot more following suit! And for the life of me, I can’t understand how these corporate heads, with all their education and foresight can’t see this coming! I, with my limited education can see it! I can’t help but think that they do see it coming and just don’t care as long as their pockets fill up first!!
The farmers lose their farms, the waitresses, the automobile dealership sales personnel and mechanics lose their jobs. The auto makers lose their jobs. The people don’t trade their cars / trucks in as often and don’t go out riding around as before because of the price of gas. Hey it’s like a snow ball rolling down a high mountain, it grows with every rotation!! Property / home sales are down. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!
There are so many people who are supporting these companies that import most of their product from other countries to make a little bit more without thinking about what it’s doing to their own community until it impacts them personally! $$$$$$$$$ is the bottom line. My mother and aunt were once told by a neighbor that if they went across the state line, they could save a few dollars. My mother told her that if everyone did that, what would happen to our town?
Think about it! Do the math !
I am talking about MAJOR JOB LOSS!!!!
That’s another one of my opinions..!!
And Pet Peeve

I’m wondering if anyone out there agrees or disagrees with me??
JD

1 comment:

shauna said...

Hey J.D.

I agree on so many levels--buying locally not only supports local people and jobs, but conserves resources and protects the environment. When we keep our business local, we have more information about how our goods are produced, and the people providing them feel more accountable. This is nearly impossible to do these days, as it seems the entire world is now made in China. I feel the same about chain stores. While we all have a budget, until we give up the idea that everything has to have a rock bottom price, this problem will only get worse. Ugh.