Buying America - The Reason

Not that there should be an particular reason why Adam and I want to buy products manufactured and grown in America, but I have one.
If I was a better patriot and ambassador of my country, the reason would simply be that I support my fellow citizens and, while the global economy is important, I believe in the products my countrymen can create and want to further our local economy.  But I've spent the last 32 years buying whatever I want whenever I want, without much thought towards where any of it was made and that's a hard habit to break (actually, it's a hard habit to recognize) until something you see makes you cringe and wakes you up to the harsh reality of what is happening around us.  And by that, I mean unemployment and poverty and families struggling to feed themselves because they can't find work, even low-paying work.
And this all shone under a glaring light for me on Tuesday, as my husband, our friends, and I drove from Taos Ski Valley, NM back to our home here in Texas.  I found clarity of vision on the mountain roads of northern New Mexico.  The gift shop in Taos Ski Valley was filled with merchandise for tourists to stock up on and bring home for family and friends.  Coasters, shot glasses, shirts, and picture frames were of course abundant.  I bought a couple shirts without thinking twice.  Always a sucker for a souvenir tshit, I am.  And I almost bought the picture frame with TAOS laser-cut into the reclaimed spruce.  But when I looked at the back it said "Made in Canada" and was $20.  What first stopped me from buying it was the fact that I'm certain there are identical picture frames being sold in Aspen, Vail, and Crested Butte - all made in Canada.  Some factory in Canada is getting lots of work to churn out identical souvenir items for hungry travelers in rich tourist towns.  So, pretty much only because I don't want some mass-produced picture frame to display my memories, because I would prefer something original, I put the frame back and did not buy it.
And then we began the 12-hour drive back home and the reality of the situation hit a little closer to home.  Because not 30 minutes down the mountain is a town called Arroyo Seco which looks as if the recession arrived there and took up permanent residence about 20 years ago.   Even the elementary school has seen way, way better days.  It takes a good 5 hours to get out of New Mexico from Taos (by way of Texas), and it never reallhy gets any better.  Every 20 miles or so you come across another broken down town.  This could be a result of many things - the remote area, farming/agriculture communities dependent primarily on sustaining themselves, a focus on seasonal tourism.  Regardless, I found it disturbing to think that these people might actually be in need of steady work and that the very souvenir items that are keeping the local shops alive aren't even made locally.  All those people sitting around, hoping for a break - and we're farming out our livelihood to a foreign country to save a few bucks. 
Despite the possibility that much of my sentiment is naive, it weighed heavily on my heart throughout much of the drive home.
 
So, right, wrong, or indifferent - this is how the idea came to be.