Made In America

I saw a snippet of Hillary Clinton this morning. She was discussing some companies using the "it's cheaper overseas" excuse for not having their product made in the U.S.A. I'm finding myself rather intrigued with that statement.

My Levis all have "Made In Mexico" tags. So I checked other brands (Vanderbilt, Lee, Riders, Old Navy...) Not one said Made In The U.S. Not many stores actually carry clothing that is made in the U.S. and when I do find it the price is four times what similar clothing costs. I'm dying to know--why so much?

My husband is being shifted to 32 hour work weeks again. The company he works for has been booming since it was bought out a couple of years ago. Things were looking fabulous. And then a MAJOR automobile manufacturer decided to pull out... They want to have their brake cabling made elsewhere...It is cheaper. Thankfully, I don't own a car or truck by this company. I doubt anyone will see their ads saying they are made in the U.S. anymore.

But I guess my response to Hillary would be - how can the government keep ignoring the drastic cost of living expenses? My heating/propane bill is double what it was five years ago. Our property/school taxes are triple. Meanwhile, in the 12 years we've lived here - we've seen my husband's hourly rate go up $4. That's certainly not on par with a doubled or tripled cost of living! This year, if he's lucky, we'll see him get a 40 cent pay raise, and for that we are thankful. But, that 40 cents is already long gone as our propane company just said that fuel prices are going up at least 40 cents per gallon by next winter.

It all makes me want to pack up, find my own deserted island somewhere and create my own country...