Chik-Fil-A and the American Way

Chik-Fil-A

I'm not going to say what you think I'm going to say. I am a huge fan of consumers using their purchasing power to make a statement. It just sucks when it's used to support a fast food chain and for dubious reasons at that. P.S. I'm also a big fan of boycotting as well.

What if we used this...trying to be diplomatic here...passion to support companies that are doing great things. Our government is financed by.... well the financial sector and big business so the one ace in whole the middle class has is its buying power.

We can stop purchasing cheap crap made in China. We can! If it doesn't sell, then the manufacturers of our favorite products will stop outsourcing US jobs! We can demand that US jobs be repatriated.

We complain about the economy and our politicians' limited solutions like tax cuts and stimulus packages. We complain that American jobs have been shipped over seas but guess what? We are the ones buying the products! We are the ones who have sat on the couch, unemployed watching TV on a Samsung.

My significant other works for a construction management company. Right now they are in the process of buying plumbing fixtures for a particular project. One of the executives traveled to China to visit a factory that produced a certain fixture they were interested in purchasing. While visiting the site, he was unable to stand the noxious fumes and was informed that the men who worked at the factory had to work in 6 month rotations because their lungs couldn't take it. And he was unfazed.

He was unfazed because that's the way the world works in our buy cheap and throw away culture. It doesn't have to be this way. Congress has an approval rating of 17%, but what about the American public? What's our approval rating? We want easy platitudes that will fit on a bumper sticker, not real change. We don't want to pay $1,500 for an IPAD. So instead we buy it for $500 and sleep at night in willful ignorance. Who cares if they have to put netting on the sides of the building at the Apple factory so if people attempt suicide they won't DIE and can work in the morning. Can't be losing workers, when there's so much demand for bright shiny things.

I say these things not be dictating from on high. I write them because I have been attempting to fill out a wedding registry with American made or ethically produced items and it's not easy. But that's another blog topic for another time. The point is, rather than buying ourselves into type II diabetes, why not buy free range chicken and grass fed beef made in America. Let's put ourselves back to work by supporting local businesses. Let's do more than complain and fight over how "right" we are.