American Jobs

There was a news item this evening that struck a cord with me.  It seems that the NBA, that's a professionual basketball league in the United States, is considering having their uniforms made outside the United States.  This provoked a congressman to declare that it was outrageous.

So if professional uniforms are outrageous how about souvenirs?  They've been made offshore for a long time.  If it's outrageous for the NBA, how about professional baseball (exempt from antitrust laws), or football, or hockey, or fill in the blank?  What's special about NBA and their uniforms?

While we're in the area, is it outrageous that when the government contracts for building the steel comes from offshore?  Or how about military equipment?  Or bridge steel?  When is "Buy America" required?

These questions are related, I believe, to the notion of where American jobs should come from.  I was struck recently by yet another pundit commenting that we need more education (we probably do but not in the way the pundit intended) so we can have more high tech jobs.  Never mind that the middle class and a strong economy are based on a strong manufacturing base.  Never mind that most of the things real people in the real world actually touch and use day in and day out are decidedly low tech.  Never mind that the countries balance of trade deficit if rooted not in high tech but manufactured goods.

Common sense suggest that beyond the NBA's uniforms a strong manufacturing base should be central to economic policy.

Oh, and by the way, the NBA buys its uniforms from Adidas (not a US company) who had subcontracted to a US firm and now wants to subcontract to someone who will make the uniforms for less money!  The congressman is interested in preserving those US jobs, not all the others such as shoes and promotional items.  It seems that somehow in the congressman's mind there is something somehow sacred about basketball uniforms.  The congressman might want to take a tour of Lawrence or Lowell Ma where there use to be shoe and clothing industries before they were shiped offshore.  Never mind a few million others.