As bloggers we try to draw our inspiration from wherever we can, but this will be our first blog generated by a chain email.

We have blogged and written before about the FTC’s strict Made in USA standard and how the FTC’s definition of “made” (all or virtually all of the manufacturing costs, including the cost of inputs, is of domestic origin) may not necessarily comport with how consumers and companies define the term.  In our experience many of them apply the rather common sense definition of where the manufacturing facility is physically located.  We’ve even suggested that the FTC considering reexamining its criteria in light of today’s increasingly global economy.  To date, however, no one’s been listening.  Instead, such companies are counseled to use the rather eye catching claim of “Assembled in the U.S. with domestic and foreign components.”

Now we can add Amy’s mother to the list of consumers who don’t share the FTC’s definition of “made.”  Check out the email chain below she recently forwarded.  See if you don’t agree that the authors think that products “made in the USA” are ones where the manufacturing facility is in the US.

ACE HARDWARE –  Made in the USA  – Very Encouraging

LOTS OF GOOD INFO HERE!
Unfortunately our politicians have pushed for trade to China and
Mexico for years so that many Americans are now out of work.

Did you Know that there is no electric coffee maker made in the US
and that the only kitchen appliances made in the US is Viking?

I DIDN’T KNOW HALLMARKCARDS WERE MADE IN  CHINA !
That is why I won’t buy cards at Hallmark anymore;  They’re
Made in China and are more expensive!
I buy them at Dollar Tree – 50 cents each – and made in the USA!

I’ve been looking at the blenders available on the Internet.
Kitchen Aid is MADE IN THE US.  Top of my list already…

Same as a kitchen
rug I needed.  I had to look, but I found some made in
the  USA.  (What a concept!)  And they were $3.00 cheaper.

We are being brainwashed to believe that everything that comes from China and Mexico is “cheaper.”  Not so.

I was in  Lowe’s the other day and just out of curiosity, I looked
at the hose attachments.  They were all made in China.  The next day I was
in Ace Hardware and I compared the hose attachments there.

They were made in the USA !!

Start looking, people…….In our current economic situation,
every little thing we buy or do affects someone else – most often, their job.

It’s way past time to start finding and buying products you use
every day that are made right here.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU IS to start reading the labels  when you shop
for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in the USA .
The job you save may be your own or your neighbor’s!

If you accept the challenge, pass this on to
OTHERS in your address Book so we can
ALL start buying American, one light bulb at a time!

Stop buying from overseas companies – you’re sending the jobs there.
(We should’ve awakened to that a decade ago….)

Let’s get with the program and help our fellow Americans
keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the USA .

I passed this on…. will you???

In the meantime unless and until someone at the FTC starts agreeing with us (and Amy’s mother) anyone wanting to make a “Made in USA” claim for their products shouldn’t assume that “made” means “made.”