In a recent message to a manufacturer we have worked with since 2007, I found I had the following to say in regards to AllenBooth.com's continued expanision:
"We're focusing on additional small manufacturers to feature the vibrant range of products made in the USA, countering the image most people have that everything we use is made overseas. We humanize products by telling their history, how they're made, and showing the people that actually made them. In part this dream has been shaped by my positive experience with you and P as a small manufacturer. So thank you."
The issue we press against:
- in an essay titled
A Nation That's Losing Its Toolbox, Louis Uchitelle describes how:
"mastering tools and working with one’s hands is receding in America as a hobby, as a valued skill, as a cultural influence that shaped thinking and behavior in vast sections of the country."
Indeed
"craftsmanship is, if not a birthright, then a vital ingredient of the American self-image as a can-do, inventive, we-can-make-anything people."
The article also quotes sociologists, one who said "we never had the ethos" to build up a skilled labor force as some countries do with apprenticeship. Another said, "now we are losing our connection to the machinery we depend on" just as a previous generation lost its connection to the land, while the potential skilled laborers are whiling away in service jobs.
We learn what we see
Young people must observe craftsmen before aspiring to become a craftsman. Therein lies the purpose of AllenBooth.com - We feature small manufacturers to expose young people to the wide range of skills they could learn. Yes we sell product to make a profit, but we could choose other industries to do that; we choose SMM (small and midsize manufacturers) because they provide more than just the products that are a result of their construction, they keep our institutions (schools, factories, workshops) filled with the knowledge of how to create superior goods.
Stay smart America
Purchase American goods not out of blind nationalism, but because the company that makes it makes an excellent product, because of the resonate effect which supports the local community and feeds craftsman's skills to the next generation. American consumers and American manufacturers - a perfect match!
In a recent message to a manufacturer we have worked with since 2007, I found I had the following to say in regards to AllenBooth.com's continued expanision: