It’s been a rough ride for the economy this year. While things stand a chance of improving in 2013 (simply because market downturns always eventually recover from their slumps), the future of the nation’s economy remains uncertain. One could, of course, just stand by the wayside, fold one’s arms across one’s chest, and remain a passive spectator to events as they play out during the next business year. But that’s not how we roll at New Process Fibre. On the contrary, when the going gets rough and the terrain gets unfamiliar, that’s exactly the moment we roll up our sleeves and say to ourselves, “How can we make this a better situation?”
The American economy is still the largest in the world (unless one counts the entire E.U). Our manufacturing sector still surpasses any other country on Earth (though China is a close and worthy contender in terms of production output). But there are always ways of shoring up something to make it that much stronger.
So while the politicians and talking heads wrangle back and forth in Washington about “fiscal cliffs”, etc., we thought we’d take another, simple, more direct approach to addressing the economic situation: buy American before and after Christmas. It’s been estimated that if every American family were to spend a minimum of $64 on American-made products for the holiday season, some 200,000 new jobs could be created. Now granted, many of these jobs would be temporary holiday jobs in retail and packaging/shipping. That being said, if there was a consistent and overwhelming demand for American-made goods this December and early January, things would be looking up for a lot of hard-pressed, hard-working folks in the manufacturing sector. In short, it might well be some medicine this country needs.
It’s not like we’re seers gazing into crystal balls here. We’re a company that deals with realities: we confront real problems with real solutions. And for our money, this is as good a short-run solution to jumpstarting our economy in the right direction that we’re able to see. Leave the politics to the politicians. Let Americans help Americans.