"Made in America"

It pleases me to hear so many people talking about only buying items that are proudly "Made in America." It's a good thing to support our national economy, American workers, and "Joe Six-Pack" from "Main Street, America."

Now there's the new push to "Shop Local" which is an even more directed campaign to not only keep American dollars in the United States but to keep your dollars in your own community.

What does "Made in America" really mean these days? What qualifies a product to wear that banner? Some items are "made" by American companies but assembled in a foreign manufacturing plant. Others are made partially from foreign parts but assembled in an American plant. Still others may be made wholly from American-made parts and processed into a final product in a U.S. plant but still be made by a foreign-owned company.

The Federal Trade Commission has laws that govern what can be officially (or implied to be) "Made in America" but one wonders how many slide by under the radar or squeak through unsubstantiated claims.

*For a more detailed (i.e. verbose and tedious) explanation you can read the question-answer-example format put forth on the Bureau of Consumer Protection's website.

I submit to you that one of the few transactions you can participate in that satisfies all these qualifiers is shopping resale and consignment. Though the original manufacturing of an item may be foreign, that original transaction is long over. Now the item is transformed! It is 100% American-owned, has been used and cared for by that citizen, and now has been put up for sale in an American-owned small business (probably on Main Street).

Who benefits? The consignor/owner of the item (your neighbor), the American small-business owner (your neighbor), employees of the business (yep, you guessed it; your neighbors), local economy, national economy, and YOU, the new owner of this freshly transformed new-to-you-and-now-fully-Americanized item. Is there anything more American than that?