Happy Meals

Last night I attended a debate between two Senate candidates locked in a primary battle. After 45 minutes of railing on the sorry fate of the American economy and the role its government played in its downfall, both were asked a simple question: What sacrifices would you ask the American people to make to fix the economy?

Both dodged the question.

Neither was willing to touch the political third rail of suggesting we simply look at military spending, which consumes 18 percent of federal spending. However, there is one more innocuous sacrifice we could make that could go a long way in solving the crisis. We could forego the toys in our children’s Happy Meals.

Every plastic throwaway item is made in China with cheap, unregulated labor and lax environmental laws. We enjoy them because they’re cheap, and they’re cheap due to the wholesale exporting of our manufacturing base. And with only 10 percent of the economy making things anymore, the economy is in turmoil.

The answer is simple. To bring manufacturing back to the United States, the toys in our Happy Meals may become too expensive for McDonald’s to provide; however, even if there is a rise in wholesale prices, there will be more Americans working to pay the difference.

Basically this is an argument for protectionism – a bad word among the corporatists who own the media and the political process. But we’ve seen what happens when we give them the keys to the factory – they send it overseas, ruin our labor force and devalue our currency. Aside from that, their way works fine.