Soon, Old Glory will have to be born in the land of the free and not merely flying over it.
Congress has passed a proposal to require the federal government to purchase only American flags that have been completely manufactured in the U.S. The U.S. imports millions of American flags from overseas, mostly from China, and the sponsors of the proposal said it’s time for American flags to originate in the country they represent.
Supporters of the proposal, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, said the change is more than just symbolic — they believe it will support American jobs and manufacturers while preserving the nation’s most recognized banner.
Capitalism. Until we don’t like particular ramifications of capitalism and then we legislate nationalisation of particular industries….because.
Truly the invisible hand of the market at work.
Considering this only covers US Government purchased flags, this IS the invisible hand of the market. It’s a consumer choosing where they want to purchase products.
And it is t nationalizing the industry. They still will be privately produced. And individual Americans can still by Chinese flags.
The particular industry that’s being nationalised is American flags produced for US government consumption. (The nationalisation part)
They’ve decided to legislate because they don’t like the optics of some foreign made products. (This isn’t an invisible hand; it’s opaque)
How is that justified in a supposedly capitalist society when China can produce flags of the same quality but at a cheaper price?
Edit: maybe protectionism is a better word than nationalise, end effect is the same; The government of a capitalist country is directly interfering with the market.
Nationalization means the government takes full control of an industry, not merely sets standards on their purchase.
And buyers are able to have any reason they want for their purchase decisions, including optics. It’s still the invisible hand. And besides, I think it’s more than optics to want American tax dollars to go to Americans.
Capitalism doesn’t mean “always buy the cheapest.” It means anyone can sell at any price and quality, and the people choose. And, in my experience, Chinese made goods are often of lower quality, made with poor environmental standards, and produced with questionable labor practices (including outright slave labor).
Harris was referring to the visit she made to the Central California Women’s Facility in July, a visit on which I tagged along. It was a surreal experience to watch dozens of women, mostly women of color, at work stations inside of the country’s largest prison for women, laying out and printing fabric and then dyeing it royal blue. It was just as surreal, if not more so, to hear prison officials point out that these flags would one day fly atop every state and federal building in California, describing this with something almost adjacent to pride.
U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A!
On its surface that’s not a horrible position for a government to take.
It’s not unreasonable for the national government (in any country) to give some level of local preference to all procurement, not only something symbolic like flags. That would actually incentivize companies to onshore more of their manufacturing - or at least slow down their offshoring.
Yeah honestly national symbol items being made locally just makes sense for so many reasons if possible and this is definitely possible. Especially since it should be the purpose of the national government to support internal functions and business before external whenever possible right?
With of course like allowments for maybe raw materials or specialized things if it’s not possible. I would get this feeling silly for a country like Vanuatu but the US has resources aplenty.
Plus in times of broken down supply lines it provides at least one manufacturing plant to rely on. This is also true of the military already for those reasons.
What a waste of our time
I feel like all this is going to do is raise government costs and line the pockets of selected contractors. We aren’t always going to be the relative best producers in cost/quality balance for every product and service.
If we’re going to subsidize any industry, it should be done directly and explicitly. Otherwise, it becomes another example of “inefficient” government that should be privatized.
Actually logistical costs and transportation is one of the highest expenses and some groups have already found that buying from local suppliers who get local raw materials (such as Climate Town’s merch Tees) can have competitive costs even when adjusting for higher labor costs just from the manufacturer being located near the farms that grow the cotton and shipping locally within the nation.
Granted the government purchased flags will likely be expensive but that’s mostly because of a quality requirement from the fact they need to be flown outdoors for some time without fading or damaging in any way. And that’s probably true currently since the flag needs to be made 50% in the country already.
Seriously look at the brownie recipe of the US military for how strict government funds are spent for specific quality requirements and you get why it’s slightly more costly than the imported flour with lead or insects in it.
It’s not about cost/quality being the best match but a good use of the funds and locally supporting business in an age when that matters is more important. Globalization and long distance transportation can not always be the answer.
Great, and where local is the best choice they should do that. But nobody can seriously argue that reducing the ability of government to shop around for the best cost/quality balance is a good thing. It’s not like the only options are buy everything American or everything from China. I’d like qualified experts making that decision, not legislators.
You create bad incentives if you artificially reduce competition like this. Not every good or service will have tons of American choices, so you end up with a handful of companies who know the government has no other choice.
We absolutely do not need foreign countries to produce all the materials for a flag at the cheapest cost. The price difference is likely negligible and shopping around can still be done.
Why is everyone so scared of taking back some production from China?
You guys are allamong weird assumptions that this is some million dollar lynching instead of just saying buy the materials you use to make from a local supplier. This counter argument is insane and literally doesn’t matter cause it passed.
I’m not quite sure how you’ve turned “we should have the option” into “we should buy everything foreign.” I think you’re having an argument you want to have rather than addressing the point I was making.
Because not everything should be bought foreign. There is no need or good reason to take something that can be easily and cheaply produced locally that is sold directly to the government and try to get the cheapest one abroad.
It’s asinine and completely against all the shouting that these communities literally do every week about local manufacturing being needed to combat outsourcing.
Your reasoning is flawed cause there is no reason to support foreign import either. Especially when the other option is to support the country they govern even if it’s just a little bit.
I truly don’t understand this hand wringing of this simple change unless you are paid for by Chinese interests. It’s not always about being cheap.
When talking about bizarre American obsession with flags… :
So many damn flags here. I’d rather not have the flag of a country that’s teetering on the edge of fascism flying everywhere, thanks.
Well thank fuck they’ve started addressing such important issues.
You mean the end of outsourced labor and production of local goods? A key issue for may people on both sides of the aisle as seen by the bipartisan support?
Yeah I guess it is good then.
Right. If that’s what you want then this is about as effective as the TikTok bill.
Not quite the end, but certainly a step in the right direction.
The end? It’s an absolutely tiny symbolic gesture.
What?
Flags being born?
What?
Well yeah, they only care about fetuses… Thus anything they care about must needs be “born”
Supporters of the proposal, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio
It will support one company that gets the GSA contract.
We have so much shit going on in this country and this is what we’re worried about?
Ohio, Maine, come get your senators. They’re drunk.
I didn’t realize this is how it worked, where can i pick up Mr. Vance? I have some choice words for him
Oh just ask the secret service. It’s like a daycare situation. They’re literally just waiting for a parent or guardian to show up.
Ohio senators are probably high, it’s legal.
Senator Brown is a great senator and literally the only statewide Democrat we have other than a few state Supreme Court justices (who will be out soon now that Republicans added party affiliation to the court ballot). He will be far better for America than Bernie Moreno.
Im pretty sure Ohio is also drunk, and Maine is too busy dealing with eldritch entities and whatever is pushed out of the Maritime into the US.
Maine is also plenty drunk, somebody needs to cut off the Allen’s coffee brandy supply and let them sober up.
Maybe they should just elect one of those next time?
Yeah but elect Ygndolsofuk doesnt quite roll of the tongue, and im pretty sure the abominations from the Maritime cant talk after being curbstomped so as to stop them from whispering in folks brains.
“Don’t be a shmuck, vote Ygndolsofuk!” works pretty well tbh.
Fine. Then China will produce 99.98% of the flag and an American factory will put 2 stitches and a “Made in America” tag on it.
So you didn’t read the article and are just making shit up in your head? Got it.
Even with current rules, 50% of the flag has to be American made.
Typical.
A lot of people in here want to be angry and feel right rather than be informed.
they believe it will support American jobs and manufacturers
What, like 3 jobs?
They will probably be made by slaves, I mean prisoners.
Yeah but they’re going to spend $10,000 per flag that costs $0.10 to make. Gotta keep lining those contractor pockets!
This. It’s probably the same contractor they already use, they’re just going to blow the price up.
Oh yeah spread that assumed pessimism. Everything sucks and nothing is ever even a little good unless it’s perfect.
Everyone knows that is exactly how the world works. All at once and perfectly, or evil and only for rich people. Boooooo.
You can’t get rid of corruption if you put your head in the ground like an ostrich. The government isn’t going to change contractors unless the current one reports it’s unable to comply with the new law. It is far more likely they will bill the government at a higher rate on a no bid contract they secured because they were already the contractor.
You can go read reams of fucking evidence about government contracting working like this. You cannot fix something you ignore. And frankly your aggressive defense of willful ignorance is disgusting.
This literally just says the flag manufacturer has to buy all their materials from the US. Instead of half international.
Did you actually read it?
And that corruption is a different story. That can and should be looked into but this literally just makes it so someone else can sell them a dye. Or a fucking polyester thread they import. Who the fuck cares you currently can’t get rid of the manufacturer. But now they have to hire an American to supply and work for them.
Neither of us have the power to fix the next thing yet but it’s movement. Stop only caring about getting a perfect victory and go for a walk.
Yes. And the federal government cannot force private companies to do this. So this is literally just for flags the government buys. Which means a GSA contract. Which probably means someone like KBR or Halliburton. Now we already have a ton of oil and cotton. So that’s not exactly coming back from off shoring. We also do a ton of textile already. 530,000 people. So we’re probably just ordering the colored nylon cotton blend from them. What’s left? What’s actually new? Putting the flags together. Which is ten people and the right machine. Okay maybe it’s 20 or even 50.
Stop giving us crumbs and require all government contractors to source the majority of their stuff from the US and have a majority of American employees, across the board.
No you’re sitting here telling us to be grateful we grew a sector by 10 people to make a rich person richer and make sure the Americanism is maximum Americanist.
I’m not who you are angry at. I’m just your punching bag.
If memory serves, I believe GOP Senator Susan Collins was the one who exercised great skill in brow furrowing - and nothing further - when expressing disapproval over felon Drink Bleach’s reckless behavior.
Yeah I like the idea here, but I saw Susan Collins and thought “Aw fuck what bullshit from yonder asshole breaks?”
That’s cool n shit but can we stop the jingoistic horseshit and work on substantial problems, like hanging traitors?
I read your comment as “hanging tractors” and for the split second I was confused as hell.
Apparently the mods are fucking confused, too, somehow thinking that it’s not okay to follow the law when it comes to treason.
“Oh… okay. But did you want to do anything about that giant list of actual REAL problems over there behind you on the table?”
It’s like they know that one of our major problems is that capitalists have destroyed all our manufacturing and sent all of our production jobs overseas thus weakening our economy our society and our National Defense. Yet instead of doing anything about it they just do this thumb their nose bill that does nothing. Kind of like a fuck you the entire country.
I’d really like to see who drafted this bill and a who the share holders in the company that will be making these flags are. My gut says they are the same people.
This was passed by bipartisan support and the person who would be getting paid would be an American with American workers and raw material suppliers who are american…
So yeah I guess the tax payers who are paying the bill are the same people here sooo… Win?
You know exactly what they meant. You still have some boot polish around the lips there.
Nope. I’m just pushing back against all this stupid pessimistic acting from a bill that literally is a good thing. Mostly because no one even read the article and just wants to feel miserable about everything. You may want the company but why not recognize even a small win.
Take your noose off and breath for a little bit.
They worked on this for years. Years. And they got about 10 jobs. When we say you’re getting crumbs and you’re happy for it, this is it. This is the literal picture in the dictionary for that idiom.
Well then it feels nice to be happy.
And it’s not like I am saying it’s done completely just taking a win.
Be pissy about it all you want. It doesn’t bother me. Just you.
God I fucking hate leftists.
We want manufacturing moved back into the country. A simple bill to move a point of national pride back to local manufacturing l, that while not a sweeping fix is a nice gesture to help make sure local companies can offer their services and employ Americans.
Ewww… Bullshit person with a cotton mill is gonna make money.
Booo! Why would anyone care about local manufacturing we need more local manufacturing
I just like to dog pile on things to complain about it to get my dopamine.
Seriously, be fucking happy for 30 seconds maybe? Then work on taking the next step forward? Instead of complaining how we took a nap for the last 4 decades we just get back in the race?
I hope local manufacturers use the income to be able to start more clothing production with quality cotton and we see an end to maybe fast fashion with moves like this. That’d be nice.
