The resurgence of 'pocketbook patriotism'

Allison Linn Senior writer • Profile • E-mail

It started with the tainted pet food.

Then came the mass recalls of well-known toys: Thomas the Tank Engine, Barbie, Dora the Explorer. Next it was suspected issues with medicine and even candy.

For many Americans, a rash of health scares involving imported goods served as a wake-up call that a surprising number of the products filling our closets, toy chests, medicine cabinets and even pantries are now being made in China, India, Bangladesh, Mexico and other far-off places.

For extreme consumers like Barbara Toncheff, the news was an affirmation of her difficult and often frustrating quest to fill her house with items made in the United States. “I was raised to support your country,” Toncheff said recently. “July Fourth should truly mean independence. We shouldn’t become dependent on the rest of the world.”

While events like last year’s import scares and the 9/11 terrorist attacks may occasionally prompt Americans to look more closely at labels, Toncheff is part of a small group of Americans who have made it their mission to buy American-made products whenever possible.

Seeking out products on Web sites such as “How Americans Can Buy American” and “Still Made in USA,” plus auction forums such as eBay, these dedicated shoppers also trade tips on how to find American-made pants and bags, and they lament the loss of American factories that once churned out their favorite pots, glassware and other household staples.

American-made items, they believe, are more likely to be safer and higher in quality. They say buying American is better for the country because it keeps jobs and money within our borders. And, they say, buying American is easier and more cost-effective than you might think, if you know where to look.

“People can complain, well, 97 percent of the clothes we buy in the United States are imported. Well, I know where to find the 3 percent,” said Roger Simmermaker, who runs the “How Americans Can Buy American” Web site and has a how-to book by the same name. “Awareness is the key.”

Simmermaker began his quest to find American-made products in the early 1990s, when he was struck during a trip to a Florida mall by how difficult it was to find an American-made shirt.  His site mixes commentary (topics include “America’s fastest-dying industries” and “How to stop China from stealing our jobs”) with straightforward lists of products and their countries of origin.

Still, even Simmermaker concedes that you can’t buy everything from American companies, especially if you enjoy watching movies on a DVD player, using a clock radio or talking on the telephone.

That’s not surprising. The United States has been operating at a trade deficit since the 1970s, importing more goods and services into our country than we export elsewhere. The trade deficit has widened significantly in the past decade, ballooning from about $108 billion in 1997 to $708 billion in 2007, as more and more companies turn to cheaper overseas labor to produce stuffed animals, jeans, blood thinners and even organic produce.

Henry Paciullo isn’t the type of guy who tends to shop much, so he didn’t even really notice the trend toward imported goods until about four years ago. That’s when it hit him that whenever he went to a typical chain store, it seemed nearly impossible to find American-made clothes for himself or toys for family members. The 40-year-old Long Island native turned to the Web in search of American products, and soon he’d discovered American-made shoes, bags and other items.

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