jpnpb, it’s obvious from your postings that you’re an honest and decent stand-up person, so I intend no offense.
But I think it’s all too easy for even civilized people to drift into disparaging or damaging others for bad reasons. What’s a bad reason? Being foreign, or of a different religion or skin tone, or other ways completely incidental to what those other people do to or for us.
I personally recommend steering clear of calls to support my tribe against the other tribes. I’ll support my immediate family, and I’ll support the safety of my countrymen, but I draw a line at supporting my countrymen’s right to get more for doing less than people elsewhere, all at my expense. It doesn’t work for me selfishly, and it ends up not working for mankind in general.
Now I totally support exhortations to my fellow countrymen to work harder, and do more of what other people want, and less of they want for themselves. If you want an economy that’s more self-sufficient, that’s a good way to go about it. As someone else mentioned, instead of steering people into buying American goods because they are American, even when they are worse, steer people into making goods and services that are better than what foreigners offer, and offer better value. Then the foreigners win too because they can buy that stuff from us. Better world.
