Keep it Simple

I was setting up for our church's Christmas pageant on Saturday, and I noted to one of my fellow camels that the ladder we were using was made in America. It was a Werner brand, though there are others made in the USA...Little Giant, for example. Good products.

The camel's comment back to me was that the ladder must be really old...because *nothing* is made in America any more.

And I get his sentiment, but it was nice to have an opportunity to tell him otherwise.

There's a LOT of good stuff made here...from shoes and boots to kitchen appliances to toothbrushes to lawn implements (Toro).

So I think I'll give you an over-generalization: We can still buy things we *need* made in the USA. But the things we *want* are made somewhere else. What do we need?

Towels, linens, clothing, shoes, real tools (hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, tape measures, leatherman, mag-lites), kitchen utensils, appliances, food, carpet, paint, 2x4's, books and cars...all made in America and all (with the possible exception of the cars) made with really good quality.

Things we want? iphones, xboxes, Wii consoles, iPods (do you see a pattern here?), flat-screen TV's and American Girl Dolls (believe it or not) are all made somewhere else.

So why don't we keep it simple and just get the stuff we need? Why complicate things with the things we don't need?

The mantra "keep it simple" helps you keep it local.