Thread: Don't Spend, Save!!

Okay, I’ll change the subject a bit. For those of you who do spend, pay by check, money order or cash. I don’t even like paying check fees. Any money I give to the bank is money out of my pocket that they do not deserve for their shorter hours and poor customer service. Anyways, I got this in the email this am and thought I would share.

Welcome to Roger Simmermaker's “Buy American Mention of the Week� electronic newsletter, created specifically for consumer patriots who want to Buy American and contribute to a more prosperous America. Please feel free to forward this to friends, family and associates. Thank you for your free subscription and for passing this important information along! For past issues, please visit our website at www.howtobuyamerican.com/bamw/index.shtml.



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Dear Subscribers,



This is an updated and expanded version of the “Buy American Mention of the Week� I sent last year about how to buy American when looking for toys. This updated and expanded article will also be published in the “Made in USA Magazine� for their upcoming December edition. To subscribe to the Made in USA Magazine, please visit www.madeinusamag.com. You will need to enter a username and password, but I’m sure you’ll think it’s worth it, because once you subscribe to either the online version or print version of the magazine, you’ll want to visit the website often for the latest updates on America’s first and only magazine devoted to Made in USA! There is still time to subscribe and receive your magazine before Christmas or consider a gift-subscription for the patriot on your Christmas list.



Buy American Mention of the Week 11-12-05



The Right Way to Participate in the Annual Toy Drive for 2005

Annual toy drives will soon be in full swing in cities across America. The purpose, of course, is to show our compassion to those children in our local communities who are less fortunate. What better way is there to make Christmas even more special than by putting smiles on the faces of children who might otherwise receive no gifts from Santa? But as it is with any act of good intentions, we need to be careful about our activities to ensure the process is just as honorable as what we set out to accomplish.

Well over 90% of all toys sold in America today are made in China, where violations of child labor and human rights laws run rampant and children under what we would consider a legal working age are routinely forced to work 12 hours a day or more. Wages are often less than a dollar an hour. Since there few if any safety, pollution or environmental controls in China, these children work in much less than what we Americans would consider a healthy atmosphere. Children should be attending school - not working in sweatshop factories.

So how can we avoid the trap of buying toys made by underprivileged kids in China to give to underprivileged kids in America? By buying American-made toys, games and sports-equipment that are made under acceptable and humane conditions right here in the USA.

But what, if any, toys and games are made in America? The answer might surprise you. Below is a list of toys, games and sports-equipment that any child in America would love to have this Christmas, and most of them can be found at any toy store. I found these made-in-USA products on a recent trip to Toys “R� Us.

Crayola Crayons
Play-Doh
Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat
Radio Flyer Discovery Wagon
Chutes and Ladders
Clue
Connect Four
Boggle Jr.
Battleship
Candyland
Life
Monopoly
Operation
Mouse Trap
Parcheesi
Scrabble
Sorry
Stratego
Pop-O-Matic Trouble
Trvial Pursuit
Yahtzee
Tri-ominos
The Wiggles Lil' Big Red Car
Step 2 Tag-Along Trailer Plus
Step 2 Push Around Buggy
Step 2 Lifestyle Dream Kitchen
Little Tikes Explorer Wagon
Little Tikes Cook 'n Clean Kitchen
Little Tikes Shopping Cart Caddy
Scholastic Fruity Gummy Activity
Scholastic Rock Tumbler
Bicycle Playing Cards
Rallye Rescue Rider
Rallye Little Ms. Rider
Runabout Wagon
Melissa and Doug U.S.A. Floor Puzzle

This is not a complete list of American-made items, but there is certainly a diverse variety of choices to make just about any child in America happy that might otherwise go without this Christmas. By buying American-made toys, games and sports-equipment this year, you’ll be supporting American workers by ensuring they get pay checks instead of pink slips, which will enable them to be able to afford Christmas gifts for their own children. There is no better way to break the cycle of using one underprivileged child to provide for another underprivileged child.

Many items in the list are made by familiar companies like Mattel and Parker Bros. But it is important to note that some are also made by a company called American Plastic Toys, Inc., which makes 100% of their toys in the USA. To see which items this company offers before you run off to Toys “R� Us, visit www.americanplastictoys.com.



There are also other toy-makers that offer most of their toys online since they are small companies and therefore haven’t been able to break into the big-box retailers. Uncle Goose Toys (www.unclegoose.com) began in 1983 after the owner realized that the classic, larger, high-quality blocks he played with as a kid were no longer made in America. Uncle Goose offers alphabet blocks in many styles (including classic embossed, braille and math blocks), and face puzzles as well as legendary Froebel gifts, which are intricate toys made to aid in child development. Their alphabet blocks are available in 17 different languages and are exported to several countries.



USMadeToys.com can save you from having to spend time and gas money visiting your local toy store by offering a large selection of toys and games you might find there on their website at www.usmadetoys.com. Their assortment includes genuine Wiffle balls and bats, the Big Wheel, gumball banks, flying toys and discs, the classic Slinky, travel games and yo-yos.



The Cubbyhole (www.cubbyholetoys.com) specializes in puzzle and children stools, which is ideal for kids with names that vary from traditional spelling. They also manufacture personalized coat racks and name puzzles as well as wooden toy chests, furniture and trains. You can even take a tour of their factory online.



Montgomery Schoolhouse (www.montgomeryschoolhouse.com) was founded in 1971 and continues to offer Vermont-made, craft-quality wooden toys today. The original site burnt to the ground in 1973, but there was never any question as to whether the new facility would be built in Vermont or overseas since Montgomery Schoolhouse strongly believes in the importance of preserving American jobs. I have some samples of their products and the quality is uncompromising.



The roots of Holgate Toy Company (www.holgatetoy.com) trace back to 1789, the year the U.S. Constitution was signed and George Washington became President. If you happen to be in or around the Kane, PA area, you can stop in and visit their factory store and museum. From wooden stools and chairs to a classic wooden checkers set and beautiful toy chests, it’s clear that Holgate has some of the world’s finest-designed toys. After all, many of their original designs were made by famous illustrator Norman Rockwell’s Brother Jarvis Rockwell.



You may not be able to buy a computer game system made in America today, but if your kids are going to be on the floor playing with one, it makes sense to give them something structurally useful to lie on. Stryder Pillows (www.stryder-store.com) sells 100% American-designed and made pillows for your comfort whether you are playing video games or just lounging around the house.



If you have more Christmas money to spare than most and like the idea of getting kids outside to play, there are more-expensive American-made choices for older kids who may desire something more competitive. The Iron Wood Bat Company makes a variety of maple baseball bats for youths and adults. You can even have them engraved for that personal touch for the special someone on your list. All Iron Wood Bats (www.ironwoodbats.com) are made in Minnesota.



When the St. Louis factory that made Rawlings baseball gloves closed, Glovesmith was ready to hire the American workers who were facing layoffs, and these American-made Glovesmith gloves can be found at www.customglove.com. The website also offers the Elite Series and Select Series, which are made in USA, along with the imported Mizuno brand and the Strategem and Field Commander Series. Being true to its name, Custom Glove’s website can walk you through the process of having your personal glove handcrafted to your specifications. And your customized glove will be customized right here in America.



One of the fastest growing competitive sports today is paintball. Even family-owned Tippmann wondered at one time if the sport was a fad that would go the way of the hula hoop, but the company has since become a leader in the industry growing from eight employees in 1986 to 120 employees today. Tippmann operates in the heart of the Midwest with plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Buffalo Grove, Illinois. To find out more, visit www.tippmann.com.



Even with a flood of imports taking up most of the shelf space in the big-name retail stores, it is definitely possible to buy American from simple toys, games and puzzles to competitive outdoor sports-equipment. By purchasing the right Christmas gifts this year, we can put American-made Christmas gifts under the tree, money in the bank accounts of working Americans, and smiles on the faces of children all across the country.



Roger Simmermaker, Author

How Americans Can Buy American

www.howtobuyamerican.com
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My favorite is www.buydirectusa.com

jp--THANK YOU for your post! I am a firm believer in buying American made products from American businesses if I buy anything at all. I don't want to be gouged in the process, so I am careful what I buy but I still actively seek out American goods when I need things.

I deeply resent the jobs that we lost in this country due to the greed of once American businesses. I agree that the unions, the environmentalists and our own government helped to put them into a position where they sought that cheap overseas labor (much of it child labor!) but that doesn't make it any less annoying. We didn't get anything BETTER as a result of all the textile industries going overseas, I can tell you that.

I have posted rants on other forums about the stores filled with Chinese goods, substandard goods, and just plain junk that used to be quality articles made in the USA. We don't save anything when we have to buy fifteen of an item over the course of five years of a "thing" that we used to buy made in the USA that lasted five years. The prices aren't lower, the quality is non-existent and, further, those Asian illegals don't just drop out of the sky and appear one day in this country. They come on those ships full of Asian merchandise that aren't inspected in our ports.

I have this theory, and it may be wrong but I still believe it. You know all those cheap clothes we have in the stores these days? Even the upper scale stores are full of them at premium prices! Well, I can't be the only one who notices that the fabric quite often smells really peculiar. And I can't be the only person who notices that no matter what you wash this stuff with, it still smells. I have a feeling that illegals are smuggled in inside those cargo containers filled with bundles of clothes and that is what makes them smell. Ever had mice in a dresser drawer? Well, they leave behind a smell. Think how much more smell PEOPLE would leave behind if they lived in your closet for a few weeks.

I could be wrong, I probably am. But those people came from somewhere and those clothes smell like urine to me. How long before they send a plague --on purpose or by accident-- or a load of anthrax along with these textiles?

Think about it.

JuniusJnr,
That smell could be from the chemicals in the fabric, the rodents in the factory or on the ship. They don’t have strong guidelines like we have here, so there is really no telling what is in the fabric.


If you have to buy Un-American, wash the fabric a couple of times. I use Borax in the clothes I buy along with the appropriate soap and or bleach.

jp-- for the last couple years I just quit buying it. period. When what I have wears out, I'll either go naked or start worrying about where to buy clothes that are made in the US. And I don't mean just sewn here out of Chinese or Indian fabric. I mean 100% US made. If enough fat old ladies like me start running around bare naked because we can't buy clothes made in America, maybe the government will get sick enough to fix the fiasco they created with their unbalanced trade agreements with third world nations!

But you are right Boraxo, white vinegar and other things will take odor out of most things. There is now some sort of thing called Odo-Ban they that works pretty good, too. (I'm scared to look to see where that is made!)

And I've been in some of those third world factories where kids are weaving cloth, making jackets, leather goods, "persian carpets" and other activities. The stench is definitely overwhelming. I came to hate leather because of the smell of it now that they don't bother to tan it properly in their haste to get it on that ship bound for the USA!

To think that the once great textile manufacturers and garment workers of the US have been replaced by children who work for a dime a day makes me sick to my stomach.

And I don't even begrudge those children their dime a day or have anything against a government that allows them to work. I don't think it hurts kid to work, personally. Many of those third world kids have parents who are crippled and can't work anymore so without the dimes the kids make, entire families would starve. If we are going to mind their business, I think we should tell them about birth control rather than criticize them because their kids work because we taught ours that to get their hands dirty is disgraceful.

In addition, we keep hearing alarming numbers as to what percentage of those third world nations have HIV/AIDS. When they work in the sweatshops do they not SWEAT and drip their bodily fluids onto the stuff they stick on the ships and send us? What ramifications does that have?

I stopped to figure it out, when my kids were growing up listening to that bit about a dime a day could save a child in Africa or South America or Asia, it cost me about twenty DOLLARS a day to feed, house and clothe my two and we didn't have anything you would consider all that special! And that didn't include the doctor bills or any other emergency.

I did my own cooking and cleaning and worked a full time job to help them have that average lifestyle. Their father was an electronics engineer who eventually lost his job of twenty+ years to outsourcing. I shudder to think what it costs to raise a kid today in this country.

Only now there are fewer jobs for people to get to support those kids because we have a bunch of ignorant morons in Washington who deal out green cards like business cards and swear up and down it is because there are jobs Americans won't do.

I guess it will cost a quarter a day to raise a kid here fifty years from now when we are a third world nation because we didn't fight off illegal immigrants and government stupidity. Inflation you know........

Great Post Junius...

Thanks Judy,. I do get cranked up sometimes.

Originally Posted by Bootsie

Well, since we are becoming conscientious consumers, my MasterCard bill came today and I decided I would just see what interest rate they charge. I was BLOWN AWAY when I saw that the yearly interest rate was 35.9%

Is that not USURY???

We never use credit cards unless the item needs to be ordered and delivered. And Bootsie--you can get them down. It is so easy. You just call and ask that the card be cancelled. The person will of course ask why, and you just tell them the interest rate is too high and you can get it cheaper at another bank. You would be surprised just how low they will go! I've done this over and over again.

Butterbean--what bank? Did it originate at a Wachovia?

ButterBean--I don't PAY ANY INTEREST! I pay the card in FULL the day it comes. I just HAPPENED TO NOTICE that on my bill the other day and we had been discussing it so I posted it. I didn't mean to start a RIOT!!! The CHARGES part was 12.49 % BUT I DON'T PAY THAT EITHER!!! THEY GET NOTHING FROM ME EXCEPT THE AMOUNT OF THE BILL. NO monthly fee. NO YEARLY FEE.. NOTHING.

I only use it because of the frequent flyer miles. And, I use it for almost everything--light bill, phone bill, water bill, meds, stuff that my mother needs as well. SO the miles mount up fast. I have almost enough on it built up now for TWO MORE TRIPS TO EUROPE and I've already used it for FIVE TRIPS TO EUROPE so it saves me TONS and allows me to do something I would otherwise not be able to afford to do!!!!!

That 35% explanation was CRAZY but since I didn't have any attention of waiting so I had to pay interest, I just gave up on that explanation!

THANKS Y'ALL. You are just GREAT!

JuniusJnr,
Great points. It is sad what America has given up in the name of "Free Trade" agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA.

On the other hand, most viruses cant live outside of the body for more than a few minutes, of course they have been known to have other types of things like chemicals and such contaminate their products that they ship our way.