"Buy American, The job you save may be your own."

The title of today's blog was a popular bumper sticker in the early 1980's with union workers. This past Memorial Day weekend I saw it on back window of a newer Chevy pickup in Ohio.

Although I don't work in the manufacturing fields, I can't say I disagree with the sentiment. A few years ago I was in favor of persuading my employer to offer a telecommuting program. However, before I got too far into it I realized that if they thought I could do my job remotely, how long would it be before they off-shored my job?

Back to the bumper sticker. I've been considering the purchase of another vehicle for my household. The current economic crisis has made it a good time to buy if you happen to be fortunate enough to have an income and a good credit score. More specifically I've been thinking about buying a GM pickup truck. What I've discovered is that in all probability the Chevy pickup sporting that "Buy American" bumper sticker, was most likely made in Mexico. It seems that all of the GM trucks I've been looking at were assembled in Mexico. I should mention that I've owned three prior GM vehicles, 1 made in the USA (Janesville, Wisconsin) and 2 made in Canada.

Moral of this tale? Be careful of what bumper stickers you choose.

7 decades and not much has changed

The other night I was flipping though my 57 channels, and nothing was on, as The Boss said. In truth it was more like 398 channels, and there was something on. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", Frank Capra's 1939 picture about a naive man who is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. It's truly a wonderful movie, as most of Capra's are. So interesting in fact that despite the late hour that I found it, I stayed up until the following morning to finish watching it.

What was most interesting, cinematic technique aside, was the Washington D.C. power game as it was in the 1930's. The sad part is that I'm not sure things have changed all that much in the past 70 years. Powerful men still continue to tell our politicians what to do. Politicians remain more concerned with keeping their jobs than with doing their jobs.

I supposed I can't fault politicians for that last one. Many in the corporate world are currently consumed with keeping their jobs. Just the other day my boss told me that it was more important than ever that our team be perceived as adding value to the company. And here I thought it was more important that we actually add value. Typically I operate under the presumption that I'm adding value, and as long as my boss sees it that way all is good. Apparently these tough economic times have changed that. We now need to have others think we add value, even if we aren't.

I've heard that there is to be a new version of the movie "Wall Street", released near the 25th anniversary of the original. Timely in a way, no? The original was released shortly after a market stumble and before the 1991 economic fall out. With any luck the new one won't be followed by an economic fall out.

I guess the saying is true, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."