If Making America Great Again starts with a comeback of American-made goods, then the President has a problem: while most American consumers say they care about where the goods they buy are made, according to a recent story from the Washington Post, “everything other than price tends to be a distant second on the list of priorities.”
“A Reuters-Ipsos poll out this week found 69 percent of people surveyed said price is ‘very important’ when they buy something,” while, “Only 32 percent said making sure something is made in the United States is ‘very important’ to them.”
And it’s not just the Reuters poll. “In survey after survey, Americans claim that they care whether their shoes, toasters or cellphones are American made. Their actual spending habits, however, tell a different story.”
Citing another study done by the Boston Consulting Group, the story notes that consumers are generally willing to pay about 5 percent more for US-made goods, but that 5 percent will seldom cover production costs that can be triple that of China’s.
And while some manufacturers interviewed by the Post were hoping for the tariff on imported goods that the president promised during his campaign, he hasn’t seemed all that eager to enact the policy. Perhaps, because it would directly affect him and his family, as both he and his daughter manufacture nearly all of their products overseas.
You can read more about it at The Washington Post.
