Our All American Party?

This year’s Super Bowl came and went and so did New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s smelly jersey he wore throughout the game. Who cares about dirty laundry? A lot of people especially him. He wants his cloths back and everyone else wants his cloths because it is valuable. Tom Brady’s Super Bowl jersey is worth more than its sentimental value. A police report was filed about a week ago that values the jersey he wore and reported it missing from the locker room while talking to the media shortly after breaking practically every record and winning the 51^st Super bowl at $500.000 dollars.

So now somebody has some smelly laundry worth $500.000 and it is not Brady. There was so much hype and excitement this year over the Super Bowl. Everyone just wanted to party and have something to celebrate. We wanted to forget for one night our stupid jobs, nonexistent bank accounts, student loans and Trump’s ban on immigrants. But did we really put everything un-American out of our minds? More than 100 million Americans watched the Super Bowl. Lady Gaga’s halftime performance surely helped her career. Now she is booking the largest arenas just for her concerts and selling out. And what did you do?

Did you host a party? Gather around a big screen TV?  Did you drink while making comments about new commercials? Probably. You would think the scene was as American as apple pie. Or is it so very American? Well 160 million people in over 170 countries watched the Super Bowl too. You might say then that the event has gone global. Many of the food you ate or served come from beyond our borders. Let’s start with your new TV. It is estimated that 90% of the televisions sold in the United States are made in Mexico. Nearly every television component is made in Asia. This is not new news. Cheaper production costs in manufacturing started in the 1970’s from abroad. It hasn’t slowed down since. Trump thinks by letting companies pollute   here again that he will attract them back to manufacture stuff in the United States.

Our products are cheaper because of the cheap cost to manufacture stuff abroad. In 1975 when 24 inches was considered a big screen, a color TV would have cost $1,500 dollars. These days you can buy the same size for $150 dollars. Yes, technology and automation has driven down costs but the real savings relate to labor. The living wage for the average worker in Mexico is about 5,250 pesos per month.  That  is equivalent to $259 dollars per month. Can you live on that? .I don’t think so. A American can live on $1,800 dollars modestly per month across the border. You would be racing across the border too.

Even if we wanted to make those same TV’s here, we could not compete on the price. Brady’s and other player’s jerseys are made in the U.S. but fan jerseys are made in other countries. That guacamole dip you ate probably crossed a border too. 1/3 of all avocado’s and 7 out of every 10 tomatoes are grown in Mexico. Could we really get away with saying that our Super Bowl party was made in the U.S.A.? America benefits greatly from global trade since so many products get here at very modest prices. That is why all our company heads are billionaires. The Mexicans are happy to have any job even if it doesn't pay well at all. We should be grateful to them. By the way, Trump now wants to charge us a border tax to pay for his wall on the Mexican border. I don't ever remember him telling the American people that we would be taxed for his wall!