Actually saw something hopeful on MSM tonight.

It was an ABC story about a house built in Montana with 100% American made products. The guy that did it said that if builders just upped their Made in the USA stuff by 5% it would create 220,000 jobs. ABC had an economic group confirm the numbers.

The story said many builders were using the list of suppliers from the Montana builder to up their use of American products.

Let's go one better. Instead of lots of hoops to jump through and councils to meet to plan fore jobs, how about a bill giving tax breaks for houses built with a certain percentage of American Made products. How could the repukes vote agains that. Of course I would like to pay for it with a tax on foreign products used instead, but we all know that the t word gives repukes the hives.

I can't find a video of the segment, which was on tonight's news" but here is a link to part of the story.

Just scratch Home Depot and Lowe's off your supplier list entirely and very carefully inspect each item from ACE or Tru Value for a 'Made in America' label. This pit of relying on everything being shipped in from China didn't happen overnight and it will take a LONG time to crawl out of it. It takes longer to build something than to rip it apart, and CEOs have spent years and years ripping the system apart and outsourcing it to China.

They couldn't even increase made-in-America supplies by 5%?

Go clothes shopping. Try to buy a whole wardrobe, from socks and underwear to casual shirts and pants to some nice dress clothes. How much of it could you find "Made in USA"? How hard would it be to increase that by just 5%?

Articles like the one cited in the OP really misunderestimate how gutted the American manufacturing sector is. It is not just clothing and building materials, EVERY sector has had major factory closings with production moved to China. I see only two possible solutions: (a) repudiate free trade agreements and institute wage differential tariffs or (b) a U-boat blockade of American ports, sinking all incoming cargo ships.

You tell me to get as many American made clothes as I can -- and then to increase that by 5%.

But these builders are unlikely to ALREADY be buying as many American-made goods as they can. They're probably just using whatever suppliers are the most familiar, the closest or the cheapest. If it was a PRIORITY to find more American made materials, they'd probably be able to.

Read the article. It wasn't about clothing. It was about construction, the biggest employment driver in the country. If a builder in Montana can build a 100% American made house, then a builder in Ohio or California can certainly build a 50% house or a 90% house. Lazy can't be an excuse. And as the article shows, neither can cost.

I would love to increase the amount of goods and variety of goods manufactured in America. But this article was about increasing jobs. That's a good thing right now. And it can be done without abrogating treaties (which I think should be abrogated) and certainly without torpedos. Just read the list.

It's a list of the products, prices and where to order them.

I saw the segment. It was nice to see a positive movement with people actually producing something.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/10/how-to-build-a-made-in-america-home/

Who couldn't find 5% on that list?

It does take some doing. You can't just run down to the local China Outlet and pick it up. You are right that that will take some undoing. But contractors who do lots of work can plan ahead. Check the list.

My point was that this is where government intervention should be. Instead of "opening" markets for a few pockets of business that do lots of campaign contributions, there should be incentives and disincentives, carrots and sticks, for how much American made stuff is used. If it can get to Montana it can get anywhere.