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Last December ABC News threw down the gauntlet: If every American spent just $64 of the usual $700 we spend for holiday purchases on goods made in America, 200,000 additional jobs would be created. My eyebrows hit my hairline when I first heard it, so I began some fact-checking in earnest. The $700 figure was easy enough ~ ABC credited it to the National Retail Federation, but the other numbers, the $64 and the resulting 200,000 jobs weren’t as easy. I checked with the Departments of Labor and Commerce statistics for verification, no luck. I read news articles and blogs, surfed websites, googled every version of the numbers and came up with nada (not exactly made-in-America lingo). I did find a somewhat diluted extrapolation of vague statistics, starting with 465 billion dollars spent in total by Americans on holiday purchases (thank you again, NRF), which translates into 4.6 million jobs. Drilling down from the $465 billion total spent to the $700 per capita figure, and likewise from the 4.6 million jobs number would bring the jobs created pretty close to the 200,000 figure. So, the numbers seem to work, but where did they come from??
ABC wasn’t saying, and no one else had offered a source. But I really, really wanted to believe it ~ it seemed so simple (too simple?), $64 = 200,000 jobs! So the next day, I made it a point to watch both Good Morning America and ABC World News and they stuck with their story and by their numbers.
By the time my holiday shopping was finished, I’d spent well above the recommended $64 that I’d taken on as my personal recession-busting responsibility. And it wasn’t all that difficult. With no research required, Omaha Steaks, Florida citrus, Entertainment and Enjoyment discount books, and season subscriptions to a local theater group easily solved the problem!
After I was finished I realized that it wouldn’t take very much on my part to carry this idea to the purchases I made year-round. I began shopping at the nearby Saturday morning farmer’s market, and in addition to some of the best veggies and fruit I’ve ever tasted, I found freshly caught fish, local honey, still warm breads and muffins, and homemade preserves and sauces. It really hasn’t been that difficult to make the $64 Made-in-American a monthly goal.
So the next time you’re contemplating a purchase, take a moment or two to see if you can buy a domestic version of the item. You never know whose job you’re trying to save!