It’s the Pitts: I’ve Been Such a Fool

I try to be loyal, I really do. I got so tired of buying stuff made in China, I recently went through all of my tools and sold or gave away any tool made in China. 

I know Craftsman is now having communists make their tools, so I quit them and switched to Milwaukee for all of my rechargeable tools, naturally thinking they were made in Wisconsin.

Imagine my surprise when I learned Milwaukee is owned by a Hong Kong company called Techtronic Industries, and the majority of their tools are made in China, Mexico, Europe and Vietnam. 

Call me old fashioned, but I refuse to knowingly buy tools made in a country where 58,220 American GI’s died in the not-so-distant past.

I guess I’ve been a big sucker because I haven’t been inside a Harbor Freight store in years – everything in them seemed to be made by the Chinese. You walk in the store, and it smells like everything just came off of the boat. Then I discovered Harbor Freight is a privately held American company with its headquarters in Calabasas, Calif.

It’s getting really hard to find a truly American company whose products are made by American hands. 

Who would have ever guessed Ben and Jerry would sell out to a foreign conglomerate? Selling out doesn’t sound like anything the two aging hippies would do, but they did.

And, I always thought Trader Joes was uniquely American, selling unique American merchandise, until I learned a giant supermarket chain in Germany owns it.

One of the brands my grandpa proudly sold in his furniture store was Hoover vacuums. He’d roll over in his grave if he knew Hoover was now owned by the same Techtronic Industries in China that also owns and makes Dirt Devils. 

The last time my wife and I went to Sears, I told the salesman I wanted to buy a washer and dryer made in America and he laughed in my face. He said regardless of whether I bought a Frigidaire, Kenmore or any other appliance, they were all owned by one or two foreign companies.

“What about a GE?” I asked.

“Nope,” he replied. “GE’s appliance division was sold in 2016 to foreigners.”

Monopoly is made by Hasbro in plants in China and India. Purina is owned by the Japanese, and every one of the 58 million Barbie dolls sold every year is made by a Japanese company as well. In fact, there never has been a Barbie doll made in America. 

Fisher Price is making the toys kids play with in 11 factories in China. Gillette makes its razors and blades in Poland, Brazil, Mexico and China, and I canceled my subscription to Forbes Magazine when I learned it was sold to a Chinese outfit 10 years ago. 

If you haven’t quit drinking Budweiser yet, maybe you will switch to an American craft beer when you learn the famous Clydesdales have been owned by a Belgian company for years.

We even sold the American oil outfit Citgo to Hugo Chavez and his Venezualan cronies. 

For gosh sakes, have we no pride?

Little did I know when I took an Alka-Selzer, I was enriching a German company. Motorola was bought by Google in 2014, and just like their phones, it was then flipped by Google and sold to a Chinese outfit, losing $10 billion dollars on the deal. 

What says America any better than IBM? Its PC division was sold to the same Chinese company where Motorola ended up.

The list of once proud American companies now owned by foreigners goes on forever. Gerber, Smithfield, Burger King, Holiday Inn, Firestone Tires and Hilton are either majority owned or completely owned by foreigners. Even the famous all-American Waldorf  Astoria in New York City is owned by the Chinese.

I gave up buying the flannel shirts at Costco that I really liked because they were made in Vietnam, and I quit wearing Levis which are made in Italy, Japan and China. 

I figured surely Hush Puppies shoes are still made here? Nope. They’re made in China, Vietnam and Brazil. If it wasn’t for my cowboy boots, I’d already be barefoot because Nike and Converse have plants scattered all over Vietnam. 

Due to my boycott of stuff NOT made in America, I may be naked soon.