Can the Made in America Challenge Create More Jobs

How many items in your home are made in America? All of your belongings? How about just some of your clothes? If you are like most American families, you will be surprised to find anything in your home that was 100% made in America. Even if you thought you were purposely buying made in America products, chances are, you were wrong.

Personally, probably half of my home furnishings are made in Indonesia. After all, I like the look and feel of global items. However, the recent Made in America series on ABC World News got me thinking. Has my propensity for everything global hurt American Industry? I don't know. But if we all make a concerted effort to buy American, will it improve American Industry? It just might.

In the ABC "Made in America" series, the question is asked, is it more expensive to buy American made items, and if it is, if every switched to American made products would it be more affordable. It very possibly could be.

The best way to support American made companies is to find out who manufactures items you use or consume, and make your purchases from them. It may be expensive at first, but if more and more people do it, you will find that prices will go down over time.

You can't go wrong if you purchase your fruit and vegetables from the local farmers market or from stores that purchase local produce. Purchase furniture from local manufactures and go for one of a kind hand made accessories, over global imports. Other items are difficult to determine the origin of, but a little research, you will quickly find out when you are paying workers in the USA or when you are paying workers overseas.

You don't have to empty your house and start over to help change the shift in American to home-made products. TAP America , a non profit organization recently announced a campaign to to educate consumers about the value of buying American. All you really need to do to help turn our economy around is to spend an extra $1.00 a day on American Made Profits to make 1 million jobs in America, according to Prweb.com.

If you need at start at finding American made products near you, check out the ABCnews Made in America map.