The Month of Buying American.

Listening to Derry Brownfield go on and on yesterday about foreign goods and the disappearing working class in America, I had a question.

How much would it cost someone (well, okay, me) to buy only American-made goods? What monetary penalty would I pay to do so?

And what kind of obstacles would arise to try to prevent me from doing so?

So I decided to perform a month-long study. I'm going to buy only American-made goods and keep track of both the cost I paid and the cost of available foreign-made alternatives.

I needed a 4-pack of AA batteries, for instance. The cheapest American-made ones I could find were Rayovac's, at $2.34. The cheapest foreign-made ones (oddly, they were a generic offshoot of Rayovac made in China) were $.94. So, in that one transaction, I paid a $1.40 penalty to buy American on a $.94 product, which works out to a 149% surcharge.

I am not counting the extra sales tax paid, because the state where I live has varying tax rates on different products.

I also needed a 12-pack of diet soda, and there I ran into my first obstacle. I picked up some Sam's Choice Diet Dr. Thunder and looked all over the package to see where it was made. There was no such information, only where it was distributed from: Bentonville, Arkansas. This does not tell me where the product was made or bottled. I noted that the brand name USED to be "Sam's American Choice," and they had to change it for SOME reason. It cost me $2.00, and to the best I could determine, there were no foreign-made similar sodas available at the store. Where there is no option, there is no choice, so I will exempt this, and similar situations in the future, from the study.

I realized I would need a small notepad to keep track of these differences and headed to the school supply aisle. There were small notepads there for $.25, but they were made in China. The next-highest-up was $.84, but they were made in Brazil. No similar product made in America was available at all. So I didn't buy one and kept the figures in my head until I got my receipt.

I had a similar experience with buying a pen. Multi-packs of foreign pens were there for $.50, but the only American-made ones came one or two to a package and cost upwards of $2.00. I did without and waited until I got to the car, where an old pen was waiting, to write down the prices.

I went to eat at Dairy Queen, and came upon another problem. From what I gather, Dairy Queen is headquartered in Minneapolis, but I do not know, and really have no way of finding out, if they use foreign ingredients. I have a feeling this will be a problem at any restaurant I go to, so I may exempt such purchases from the study.

I am under no delusion that my buying habits are representative of the larger population. In fact, I'm sure they're not. I am thrifty almost to the point of compulsion. So, you can pretty much assume that whatever results I come up with, yours would be more pronounced.

RUNNING TOTALS:

American-made products purchased: $2.34

Foreign-made alternatives: $.94

Difference: $1.40

Percent surcharge: 149%.