Buy American

The global economic crisis is on everyone's lips these days. Luckily, the US government is taking steps to address it and the new "Buy American" campaign is a big step in the right direction.

True, the crisis that has originated in the US drags the entire world down, but the essential part of the solution - a new wave of economic patriotism - makes perfect sense. Furthermore, the "Buy American" provision in the economic stimulus plans is the necessary guarantee of success.

Why is that, you may well ask? Because allowing people to choose means that they can, and often will, make the wrong choice. This is unfortunate at best of times, and certainly unacceptable in the time of crisis, when some dangerous freedoms need to be taken away so that the population may benefit from the strong leadership.

What about the rest of the world? We in Australia also enjoy the variants of the economic patriotism theme, so should we follow the lead and buy Australian only?

At first I thought that a resounding YES is the only answer...

...but then I started thinking. Do all of the Australian states have the interests of us South Australians at heart? I don't think so. The eastern states in particular, with their booming economies in Sydney and Melbourne, are always looking down on us. "Buy Australian" can clearly be improved: "Buy South Australian" is the way to go, right?

Right! Except that South Australia includes a whole bunch of backwater communities, often with unfairly cheap labor, and investing any of our money on them simply makes no economic sense. We must end this constant drain on our resources, and focus on supporting OUR industry. This is the time when buying Adelaide-only seems like the only logical proposition.

Except for one thing: the snobbish southern and eastern suburbs of Adelaide do not care much for us living in Northern Adelaide. On the average they are better off than us, no doubt the result of exploiting our unwise, unrestricted spending. It is time to put a stop to that, and limit our purchases to the Salisbury Council area.

Yesterday we erected the stakes around our kraal and firmly shut the gates. True, things are a little dirty around here because we're running low on soap, but it's a small price to secure our economic recovery. Also, my kids worry me with their calls to make an exception and buy from the outside - they just do not see the big picture. They don't know what's good for them and how lucky they are that they do not get to decide. None of our money is to be wasted outside.

The buck stops here!