Well, yes, something LESS than 70% of the materials are domestic in this particular pair of New Balance running shoes. The New Balance web site from which I ordered them listed these shoes as Made in USA.
The shoes were produced in one of New Balance's five US factories. (Points for trying.)
This is my second new pair of shoes in a couple of weeks... It had been many miles since I ordered a new pair.
National Geographic has had a couple of good articles (one last spring) about the working conditions in China.
These are some of my concerns:
1. Many Americans are out of work.
2. Many laborers in the Orient are not receiving fair benefits for their labors. (Who are those slimes who are profiting?? And to what degree is it Us?)
3. Why don't we hear anything about the cost of transportation for imports? (Doesn't that require OIL?) Those imports are not arriving on American shores by rail.
4. Where are the "buy local" folks when it comes to dishes, stainless steel kitchen equipment, clothing, shoes, children's toys and books, auto parts, (whatever... have you been shopping lately?)
Back when "they" predicted we would become the information age, rather than manufacturing, I had no idea this is what they meant. Sigh.
By the way.. yes, we are still running, running, running on indoor tracks, and attempting a small beginning of weight/resistance work.
And we are pretty busy, as always, cooking the wonderful meals you can see on these blogs: Make It a Masterpiece, and Myeloma Hope.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Made in USA ?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Good looking shoes, none the less.
Check out vitruvianrunning.com
I shall check out your recipes!
OK - seriously -- you should do a "healthy meal" delivery service!
Love the look of the shoes?! You're tagged! Fun fun! Check out my blog. Hope you are staying warm in the new snow.
Hi Sunshine.. I have had terrible experiences with New Balance shoes collapsing on me - that is the sole collapses in on it's own air pocketty things, I only use asics gel now - without any idea of where the come from - and I don't run.
if you want answers to the questions of where does the money go, then read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins http://www.johnperkins.org/ or google him for some good info,
I've already mentioned the Naomi Kline book "The Shock Doctrine" and understandably you were put off by the mini movie which does focus on the torture and shock aspect of the book, but those aspects are the tools for the main event... economics.
the audio link on my bloggie is probably the most gentle way to get the idea... let me know what you think and thanks for caring and tracing down the story of your shoes and how they came to be :-)
xxx
Cat
Dear Cat.. I offer questions for discussion and pondering.
Sunshine, I apologies for misinterpreting your comment earlier when I posted the shock doctrine video.. I had received comments re; the violence and meant nothing by it, but understandably, the shock doctrine is shocking, and I would expect it to not be to everyone's taste.
I offer most humble and sincere apologies.
Cat
Thanks for your kind words on my blog. I'm healing, not as fast as I would like but better than a week ago.
Interesting points you make here. I don't know the answers but having had parents who were raised in Asia during very hard times, I try not to view what goes on overseas using my (American) standards. As my parents used to tell me, there's no such thing as welfare, charity, worker/unemployment comp, laborer rights, etc. in many places. You do what you have to do.
Hello Sunshine, excellent post. When I am in the U.S. I try to buy only "made in the USA," but it's not easy, as you point out.
I agree with all the points you make. And what about slave labour that involves the use of children? I don't even want to think about that...horrifying.
Sadly, the appalling work conditions that exist in China have in recent years been exported to Italy. There are Chinese slave labour enterprises all over Italy, even near Florence, that use (Chinese) slaves.
Just a few days ago, the Italian state police checked out a shoe factory run by a Chinese couple in southern Italy (in Caserta, a city near Naples). They found 11 exhausted clandestine Chinese workers who lived (barely!) and worked inside the factory and were paid 5 euros for a 12-hour workday. That's about $7.5 per day, at today's exchange rate.
This is just a small part of the picture, unfortunately (it's not just the Chinese...). Is there anything we can do about this?
Margaret
Florence, Italy
Post a Comment