Inspired by this diary (which you should rec, tip, and comment in as well), I've started thinking a bit more about how we can make it easier for people to buy American-made—and preferably American union-made—products.
One of the reasons our unemployment rate is so high in this country is because many of our manufacturing jobs—the jobs a person used to be able to spend a career in, joining a union and raising a family—have been shipped overseas by greedy corporate bean-counters whose only interest is in how much profit they're making for their shareholders, and not the community or nation they're leaving shattered in their wake.
And we, whether wittingly or unwittingly, aid them in their destruction of our economy and our workforce. We do it whenever we buy something that was made in China, or Korea, or Taiwan, or Vietnam, or Bangladesh, when the same product was available and made by American workers in American factories.
So I've got an idea for an iPhone (/Android/Blackberry/whatever) app... and I need programmers and researchers to help me bring it to fruition.
One of my favorite iPhone apps is called RedLaser. What RedLaser does is scan barcodes and QR codes, like one would find on virtually any product sold in stores, and then offers price comparisons: Where around here or online does this product cost less? What other products are available that are similar to this?
I'm thinking we could do the same thing with a barcode-scanner app that tells the consumer: What percentage of this product, from R&D to packaging to what's inside the box, was made by American workers? And what are some alternatives to this product that have a higher USA percentage—or, if several options are made in the USA, which alternatives have a higher percentage of unionized workforce?
According to comScore, 53.4 million Americans used smartphones as of July 2010; that number is sure to be higher now. And while I don't have any data in front of me on this, I'd be willing to wager dollars to donuts that smartphone users have a bit more in the disposable-income department than non-smartphone users overall.
Imagine what impact we could have if we even got 10% of those smartphone users to start using this app when they made major purchases—5.3 million people. Imagine how many Americans we'd put to work, how many more American-supporting companies would profit, how companies that don't support Americans would see their bottom-line plummet.
And this is something that I think could cross the political aisle... after all, we're asking folks to buy American and put Americans to work! What's more patriotic than that? I could picture my Republican brother using this app just as easily as I could picture myself using it. I think folks will be willing to pay a bit more for things if they know that their money is going into American workers' pockets and recirculating back into communities across this country.
The unions could push this to their members too; while not as many Americans are unionized now as they were 50 years ago, there are still enough union members to make a difference. Union-member Americans could use this app and spread it to their friends and family, telling them: When you're supporting American business, you're supporting folks like me.
All we need are programmers or two who can make this vision a reality... folks who can program for iOS, Blackberry, Android, Windows, or PalmOS. Please send me a direct message through this site to let me know if you're interested, or if you know someone who might be interested. At the moment, obviously, we can't pay—but I think we can get funding either from a modest app charge (99¢) or from a union or two willing to pay a bit for development.
After we've got the bones of the product set up, we'd need researchers; obviously, the unions themselves could help with some of this (as Leo Gerard of the USW demonstrates, providing a list of American-made products in his diary), but we'd need other people who could do research to find out where our consumer goods are being made.
Anyone interested in helping with this project?