BUSINESS - By US. Buy U.S.

"President-elect Joe Biden is pledging to use the power of the federal government to buy American goods and jump-start domestic manufacturing. Some companies say rules that are too restrictive could raise their costs and complicate supply chains for items not made in the U.S.", says a January 4th Wall Street Journal article. Having the U.S. government buying American goods is not enough. We must have the whole country buy American. The government cannot force Americans to buy American, but they can make Americans buy American in their own free will. On Madison Street, they call it marketing.

The U.S. government will certify two labels - the gold label "Manufactured By Us. Buy U.S." and the silver label "Assembled By Us. Buy U.S.". The manufacturers can only put those labels only in products that are either manufactured or assembled in the U.S., using American labor force. These products can cost more than say, made-in-China products. Some manufacturers will make only "By Us. Buy U.S." products to distinguish theirs from the low-cost importing competitors. Some manufacturers will straddle, and have made-in-China products at a lower price for the general population, and have limited quantities of "By Us. Buy U.S." of the same product at a higher price. For example, Apple can have most of their iPhone made in Asia, and builds a smaller manufacturing factory in the U.S. that makes the same iPhones. The "By Us. Buy U.S." phones will have a distinctive color that the regular iPhones do not have, thus giving their owners a special status of either a patriot, or one that supports the American workers, or one who has money. If you are a celebrity, which iPhone will you use?

Besides the certification, the U.S. government will need to have programs to counter counterfeits.