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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Roger Simmermaker
Aired January 24, 2004 - 09:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JASON CARROLL, CNN ANCHOR: Layoffs, outsourcing, these business challenges got us to thinking. Is it even possible for Americans to buy everything they need, and have those things carry a "Made in America" label?
Roger Simmermaker is the author of the book "How Americans Can Buy American," and he joins us live from Orlando.
And Roger, I'm just curious. Was there anything in particular that happened in your past, or someone else's, that led to you write this book?
ROGER SIMMERMAKER, AUTHOR, "HOW AMERICANS CAN BUY AMERICAN": Well, what I did was, when I went shopping for a shirt at a Florida mall down here in Orlando where I live, I had such trouble buying one made in the USA that I just got upset about it and decided to do something about it. And writing this book is a result of that experience.
CARROLL: With so many businesses doing outsourcing, isn't it really impossible to just solely buy American?
SIMMERMAKER: It's impossible to fully buy American, but we need to do what we can, where we can. And it's -- we find it's very possible in many areas to buy American-made products from American- owned companies, and it's very important that we do that, because not only do foreign workers pay no taxes to the U.S. Treasury, only American workers do, to a large extent, American companies pay most of the U.S. taxes in this country.
CARROLL: Right. I want you to give us some examples from your book. I was just scanning, and I noticed just when you were taking the topic of coffee, we drink a lot of that here in the morning, if you buy Taster's Choice, that's actually Swiss. But Sanka is American.
Let's look for something else. Mustard, for example. Take us through some of that.
SIMMERMAKER: Right. People would be very interested to know that French's is not a French brand. It's actually owned by the British. And although Gray Poupon sounds like it might be foreign, it's actually an American-owned brand.
Now, both of these brands are made in the USA, so the workers are here. The difference is, who owns the company, where are the taxes paid, where the profits go. And we need to keep not only jobs but profits in the United States.
CARROLL: No, I understand your point. But just -- if every American bought American, then what does that say about American companies? Would they -- are -- do you have a concern, then, that they would just get lazy, not make the products as well? Isn't that the reason why some of these products ended up going overseas to begin with?
SIMMERMAKER: Well, I think a lot of American companies do want to employ American workers. I mean, you look at the CEO of Cooper Tire has said that he doesn't really see any inherent advantage of being an accessibly global company. Almost all tires Cooper sells to our market are made in the USA.
New Balance still makes about 30 percent of their shoes in the USA.
So we have to put the profits in the hands of these companies so they can afford to pay the higher wages that we demand in this country. We, the people, have to be able to pay for the things that we have demanded from our government, and that comes by supporting the people that pay the most taxes into the system.
CARROLL: Roger Simmermaker, the book is called "How Americans Can Buy American." Thank you so much for joining us.
SIMMERMAKER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 24, 2004 - 09:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JASON CARROLL, CNN ANCHOR: Layoffs, outsourcing, these business challenges got us to thinking. Is it even possible for Americans to buy everything they need, and have those things carry a "Made in America" label?
Roger Simmermaker is the author of the book "How Americans Can Buy American," and he joins us live from Orlando.
And Roger, I'm just curious. Was there anything in particular that happened in your past, or someone else's, that led to you write this book?
ROGER SIMMERMAKER, AUTHOR, "HOW AMERICANS CAN BUY AMERICAN": Well, what I did was, when I went shopping for a shirt at a Florida mall down here in Orlando where I live, I had such trouble buying one made in the USA that I just got upset about it and decided to do something about it. And writing this book is a result of that experience.
CARROLL: With so many businesses doing outsourcing, isn't it really impossible to just solely buy American?
SIMMERMAKER: It's impossible to fully buy American, but we need to do what we can, where we can. And it's -- we find it's very possible in many areas to buy American-made products from American- owned companies, and it's very important that we do that, because not only do foreign workers pay no taxes to the U.S. Treasury, only American workers do, to a large extent, American companies pay most of the U.S. taxes in this country.
CARROLL: Right. I want you to give us some examples from your book. I was just scanning, and I noticed just when you were taking the topic of coffee, we drink a lot of that here in the morning, if you buy Taster's Choice, that's actually Swiss. But Sanka is American.
Let's look for something else. Mustard, for example. Take us through some of that.
SIMMERMAKER: Right. People would be very interested to know that French's is not a French brand. It's actually owned by the British. And although Gray Poupon sounds like it might be foreign, it's actually an American-owned brand.
Now, both of these brands are made in the USA, so the workers are here. The difference is, who owns the company, where are the taxes paid, where the profits go. And we need to keep not only jobs but profits in the United States.
CARROLL: No, I understand your point. But just -- if every American bought American, then what does that say about American companies? Would they -- are -- do you have a concern, then, that they would just get lazy, not make the products as well? Isn't that the reason why some of these products ended up going overseas to begin with?
SIMMERMAKER: Well, I think a lot of American companies do want to employ American workers. I mean, you look at the CEO of Cooper Tire has said that he doesn't really see any inherent advantage of being an accessibly global company. Almost all tires Cooper sells to our market are made in the USA.
New Balance still makes about 30 percent of their shoes in the USA.
So we have to put the profits in the hands of these companies so they can afford to pay the higher wages that we demand in this country. We, the people, have to be able to pay for the things that we have demanded from our government, and that comes by supporting the people that pay the most taxes into the system.
CARROLL: Roger Simmermaker, the book is called "How Americans Can Buy American." Thank you so much for joining us.
SIMMERMAKER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
