Team USA's free market folly

Here is another post that has been brewing in the queue, though not as long as my defense of DSL: Team USA’s Chinese made uniforms.

The indignation has settled somewhat and the US Olympic Committee announced that Team USA’s outfits and uniforms will be American-made from now on. Personally, I agree that the decision to outsource the manufacturing was in very bad taste. But I feel the outpouring of anger is ironic.

Something like five percent or fewer of the clothes sold in the United States are made in the United States. Except for a specific type of New Balance shoes, I have no clue what those American-made products are. (American Apparel has a factory in Los Angeles, so I suppose that counts, too.) Basically, almost everything we wear — almost everything we buy, period — is made in Asia or Latin America now. Such has been the affect of the free market in the age of globalization; attracted by cheaper (much, much cheaper) labor and fewer labor and environmental regulations, the textile jobs jumped overseas.

Ralph Lauren is no different than any other clothing company — something one should expect. Just as consumers do, businesses use the free market to their advantage, and ol’ Ralph Lauren did just that when it contracted the manufacturing of Team USA’s outfits and jersey’s in China. So why, in an age when capitalism is extolled by politicians and businesspeople at every corner (“It works! It is the best thing ever! It is American, through and through!”), is Ralph Lauren being vilified for using the free market?

I do not get it. Like I said, I agree it was in bad taste to outsource the job to China when millions of Americans are out of work and the US textile industry has been gutted. But why demonize a company for doing exactly what it is supposed to do? For doing what we all do, and are encouraged to do, everyday?