[Mr. Jeeves]

Quite frankly, American companies no longer know how to make the products we need for "middle class" retail stores, even if they could afford to operate in the punitive US environment. Apparel is still done well very in Canada and Turkey (fairly expensive), in Italy (by Albanian illegals, to keep the costs down) and in China (moderate but rapidly getting expensive) and much less well but very inexpensively in places like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.

But it's important to understand that the "Made in the USA" label on a garment almost always means "Made in a Sweatshop in L.A. by Illegal Aliens." And it's immediately evident when looking at the stuff, to anyone who knows anything about sewing and cutting. The few quality manufacturers left in America have to price their products beyond what the bottom 99% are willing to pay.

The glib and oft-repeated assertion to "Bring back American jobs" will only happen now after American wages finally descend to (or more likely, below) world norms. Our nation offers nothing special any more, just a lot of burdensome regulation and taxation and an inadequately trained workforce. We have become a nation of 45-year-old office workers with few Third World skills to apply to real productive work once government socialism finishes driving most of the office work offshore.

[Rodamala]

I am a man... I do not "shop". I go to the store knowing what I want and what I expect to leave with and know what to expect for cost.

4 years ago I had found that Sears sold a simple black cotton sock branded New Balance, made in USA (supposedly).

This was before all the snot-nosed punk kids I see on the streets up to no good wearing this style sock with shorts and sandals.

Anyways, the last time I went to Sears because I needed socks... they are no longer available. I guess I will just wear bloody rags on my feet like Valley Forge.