How has everyone missed supply and demand in the economic talks?

I don't normally write anything political or even anything about the economy. This post will be a bit out of the ordinary for me. I don't consider myself to be a business expert. I am someone who pays attention to people and situations, that is all I am.

Here is my question: why are we surprised that our economy is faultering when we ignored the laws of supply and demand for so long?

What do I mean by that? When I was young there was a movement across the country to "Buy American!" There were signs, banners, billboards and the occasional commerical that said we should buy things that were made in the U.S.A.!

At that time it didn't make much difference to me since the only things I cared about buying were baseball cards and wiffle ball supplies. As I got older I learned that the cheapest and best electronics and cars came from other countries. Also most toys came from a factory in another country as well. I figured that we needed to buy it from who ever made it the best and the cheapest and then the margin that we sold it for at the store would make the profits that we needed to continue to be the wealthiest country in the world.

This is pretty much how things have gone since I was a kid. People have exported production and imported good. We raise prices to pay for: the purchase of the product from the manufacturer, the shipping into the U.S., the rental or purchase of a storefront, the employee salaries/benefits and the taxes on all of the above.

If you think about it for a second something will start to show up. We are a nation of consumers. The only way a nation of consumers can continue to consume is if we are also a nation of producers. We have to eventually play both sides of supply and demand. If we are not exporting as much as we are importing we will eventually be giving more money away to other countries than we are getting back. That means we will not have the money to create new jobs or sustain the ones we have.

Does that sound familiar to anyone but me? The country is looking for a stimulus package or a government solution to our problem. How about we do this instead. Look for the "Made in the U.S.A." label and buy that stuff. If we do that then the factories where those products are produced will have to hire more workers and increase production. If more people are working and more money is going back into our economy then we will see economic growth.

Am I way off in my thinking? Am I making it too simple? You may pay a little more to buy something that was made in the U.S. instead of somewhere else, but in the long run it still makes sense. Prices will go down if we can produce more products. Mass production is how you get the price down, but there is no need for mass production in the U.S. if we are not buying any of our own products.

We obviously won't ever stop importing products. The problem is that we need to start working on improving U.S. products so that we will export more finished products than we are importing. I don't benefit from anyone buying any "Made in the U.S.A." products. I don't work for or own stock in any company that would benefit from my "plan". I just think that it makes sense and I haven't heard anyone talk about it. Maybe I wasn't listening, maybe you know better than me. I'm all ears.